


Havoc and Despair

by boredandelusive



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Quirks (My Hero Academia), Based off the Danganronpa game not the anime, Class 1-A of Hope's Peak Academy, Class 1-B goes missing, Danganronpa Executions, Despair, Execution, Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Gen, Headmaster Nezu, Hero Society is crumbled, I'm not gonna watch the anime, Killing Game Executions (Dangan Ronpa), League of Villains took over - AU, MHA x Danganronpa Crossover, Mineta Minoru Being an Asshole, Multiple Nezus, Remote-Controlled Nezu, Spotless, Survival of the Fittest, The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy, Trigger Happy Havoc based fanfic, U.A. Dorms (My Hero Academia), UA Highschool - Freeform, blackened, but make it UA high, graphic death depictions, the concept of Danganronpa but as MHA, very descriptive writing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:55:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 30,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27522643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredandelusive/pseuds/boredandelusive
Summary: Villains have overrun the world into chaos,  crumbled the hero society, and took away the symbol of peace and hope, All Might. However, with most of the heroes gone, which included the UA staff, it left Nezu and the entire hero course to fend for themselves.Having the idea to lock themselves out of harm's way, Class 1-A and Class 1-B locked themselves in UA with the goal of surviving the wave of villainy. However, things don't go as planned when their memories get erased and something has happened to Class 1-A and Class 1-B. It seems as though no one in Class 1-A remembers one another, which is strange.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42
Collections: Klance and BakuDeku





	1. Prologue

☯

 ** _Havoc and Despair ran the streets with red,_ **which was the unfortunate result of the villains crumbling the heroic society. At the source of all of this despair stood a man with pale skin and light blue hair who stood at 5'5" with a scar on his right eye.

Pro-Hero Eraserhead, known by his students as Aizawa-sensei, was the last person who was trying to fight the man with the blue hair in hopes he'd give up. "You heroes, standing in the way of my preeminence. And to think all it took was taking down your pathetic symbol of hope."

As though on cue, he stepped over Toshinori's lifeless body, getting closer to the hero who was struggling to stand. He activated his quirk on the pale man, as if it would stop him from carrying out his mission. However, because of his last encounter with the man and his current head trauma, his eyes would fail him. 

"How quick you are to activate your quirk, but you forget that I know your weakness." Continuing to walk closer to the damaged hero, a grin formed on his lips. "You should stop fighting, I've already won the game, and I've already defeated your ultimate boss. All that stands in the way..." extending a hand toward Eraserhead, a sadistic smile formed on his face.

"I'm not going to give up, regardless of what you do," in a feeble attempt to catch him with the capture weapons, it only gave him the chance to bring him closer to the man's body. "And if I don't win, _Shigaraki,_ " his words sounded hurtful, as if his death would start the revolution, he grabbed onto the elbow that previously was injured by him. "You'd better believe that there'll be an uprising."

"I'm counting on it," grabbing hold of the band, Shigaraki held it with all of his fingers, causing it to disintegrate into ash by the time it hit the ground. Coming at the hero with astonishing speed, his fingers rested on Eraserhead's face. Shigaraki's index and middle finger were on his forehead, his ring finger slightly above his right temple, and both his thumb and pinkie underneath his cheekbones.

Because of the situation he was forced in, he knew that she second he blinked, Shigaraki's quirk would reactivate, killing him. However, due to the damage to both of his arms, he wasn't able to punch or push him away in time. From the constant exposure of air to his eyes, reflexive tears started to form, which caused Aizawa to shut his eyes on bodily instinct.

The decay started the second he shut his eyes, knowing he tried to protect his students to the best of his abilities. "Now then," his eyes surveyed the ground, only to see two eyes, both of them being connected to a 16-year-old teenager with green hair and freckles, pratically mortified from seeing his homeroom teacher die in front of him.

Tomura's head tilted to the side, also narrowing his eyes before realizing there was the chance that he still had to go against Class 1-A. "You and your pesky little classmates," walking towards the group of teenagers who were attempting to hide from around the corner of the school, all of them panicked when they saw Shigaraki walk closer to the school.

"Come with me," the main door to UA opened to reveal the 2'9" creature who was their principle. "Being out here won't get you anything but killed." Though they were still frozen from fear and realization that all of their teachers had died from the League of Villains, Momo was among the first students to move from Class 1-A.

"Come on, we can't do anything to help," speaking as though there wasn't any hope left for the students, all of them rushed inside the building, which the door closed before Shigaraki had the chance to bring any harm to the students. "He can get in-!" Still out of pure terror, which was the same feeling Momo and Midoriya had felt when they first rescued Bakugou, they felt still, _hopeless._

"The school's lined on the outside with quirkproof padding, however, that also means that no one's quirk can work outside of these walls." If that meant that all of the students were safe, that was a sacrifice they'd be willing to take. However, there was a certain voice that caused the hair on the back of Midoriya's neck to raise.

"And here I thought Class 1-A was going to protect us all," that was a rather _familiar_ voice, one that no one really wanted to hear, but by the sound of it, it was somewhat of a relief. "I mean, isn't that the whole point of making you in the top hero course?" Monoma, who looked more like he was in a pissed off and panicked mood, was still trying to keep his complex.

"Monoma, now is really _not the time,_ " it was clear sign that him having a sly tone after their teachers were dead wasn't the way to go, especially now. Mina, who looked pale, wanted the chance to ask Nezu what the plan was, but by the time she looked down to try to talk to the creature, he was already at the end of the hall.

"Now, because the dorms used to be outside of the school, I took some of the older classrooms and chance them to be rooms on the second floor. However, with the chance that the villains are still out there, I need some of you to board up the windows." Though their anxiety shock was coming to a low point, it was still requested of them to be able to protect themselves against any other attacks. "Follow me, there are the quirkproof panels in the gym and the toolset needed to put them over the windows."

Jirou, who nodded reluctantly, followed after Nezu first with Denki behind her. This would be the start of their new life living in UA.

☯

After four hours had passed and the panels were over the windows, it was nighttime, at least, that's what it felt like. Considering all was said and done with the panels being up to block the windows, the only thing left to do was eat dinner and go to sleep.

Since it was UA, all of the students knew their way around the school, to which they met up in the common area. It seemed as though dinner was prepared, though it wasn't by the usual cook, it looked more like it was something similarly made when they had training camp in the woods: made by a student.

Grabbing a plate, Midoriya still felt nauseous because of what he'd seen: his teacher, _class 1-A's teacher,_ **dead at the hands of Shigaraki.** The image kept looping in his mind, which made his stomach churn, but then again, he hadn't eaten anything and needed to do such before the day was over.

"...Midoriya, are you all right?" As if suddenly brought out of his head and thoughts, Kirishima lightly nudged him in hopes of getting his attention. Jolting almost violently, it seemed as though his nerves were still on high alert.

"S-Sorry, I still can't get the image out of my head," because his heart was beating fast from being touched suddenly, almost as if he was disconnected from his body without realizing it. There was a pit of silence between the two, to which Izuku broke in hopes of it not being awkward. "Kirishima-kun?"

"Yeah, Midoriya?" Kiri could see the look of confusion in worry in his eyes, though he was hoping his solemn tone could help him calm down.

"Do you think we'll ever get out of here?" The one question that not even he could answer, it was something to fear the possibility that them getting out would be slim. After everything that happened with Shigaraki, neither of them knew whether or not it would be a good idea to leave the school in the first place.

"I don't know, and being honest here, I don't know if we should leave," considering all of the pro-heroes in Japan were dead, it wasn't clear whether or not it would be safe to leave in the first place. "For now, we shouldn't worry about getting out, we need to focus on staying here and staying safe until this whole thing dies down."

"And once it does? There's a good chance we might be ethe only people in japan, and that's as far as we know of." He was rambling again, though, this time, it seemed like there was genuine fear behind his words. 

"Midoriya, let's just worry about now and not about the future," calming himself down, he took a breath before getting food onto his plate and sitting down with Iida and Uraraka.

☯

Not 30 minutes later, Izuku wasn't feeling too good, and he didn't know why. Not thinking too much of it, he walked into his room and got in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Taking a few deep breaths, he started to drift to sleep without realizing it. 

Though he didn't realize it, this would've been the beginning of despair across Class 1-A.


	2. 1.1

Waking up, something that acted as an alarm woke up the entire building. _" **Ahem, UA Academy has an announcement to make: It is now 8 AM, rise and shine sleepy heads, and there's going to be an official graduation ceremony in the gymnasium at 8:30, so don't be late."**_ The monitor in the room blinked off, which caught Izuku's attention.

It was some sort of creature, one he didn't recognize. In fact, come to think of it, Midoriya couldn't remember how he got to this school, _he couldn't remember anything prior to first joining UA._ The sudden gap in memory had him concerned, but it also meant that he didn't know if he was the only one in the school.

Shooting up from the bed, Izuku rushed to the door in hopes he wasn't the only one in the school. However, there was something on the table: a key with the letters 'I. Midoriya' engraved in a large and perfect font. Reluctantly taking the key, he was quick to leave the room before closing the door behind him.

Planning to lock the door, he turned around to put the key in the slot, though there was a nameplate with a photo of him on it with his name engraved in the metal. Locking the door regardless, he recognized the logo at the end of the hall, though that only added to his growing pit of confusion in his mind.

"DEKU?! What the hell are you doing here?!" The aggressive tone, that was one he'd recognized since junior high, the same one that made him feel worthless sometimes. Turning his head to face the source of the voice, he saw Katsuki Bakugou, his childhood bully.

"Kacchan? What are you doing here?" Given he was trying to keep a calm feeling in his mind, though the feeling of fear rose in his gut again. "I-I thought I was the only one, and I don't remember how I got here."

When Midoriya said that, Bakugou's eyes slightly widened, showing that he wasn't the only one who went through some sort of amnesia. "So... it's not just you then?" Saying that was enough to prove the point that neither of them knew what happened or how they got there.

"You don't have your memories of how you got here?" Saying that was still enough to catch him back into his usually aggressive tone.

"Of course I don't, dumbass! If I knew how I got here, I wouldn't be talking to a useless bastard like you," he was still being a bully, though he somehow found it comforting to know that he didn't change regardless of the situation.

They weren't the only ones who were in the school, let alone in the hallway where there rooms were. "Who are you?" It was a boy with a scar on the side of his face that had red hair, more specifically, a boy with duo-colored hair and heterochromic eyes. 

"Hey you, where the hell are we?! Are you the one behind this? I'll blow you to pieces if you are," sounding overly aggressive as usual, Bakugou was the type of person to try to pressure people into doing what he wanted. 

"No, I'm not. I don't know where I am, and by the looks of it, neither do you." Midoriya's eyes glanced around the hallway, to which the doors caught his attentions. Not about the doors, but what was on the doors: nameplates.

Glancing at his door first, he saw his name in font and a photo of him above the words. "The nameplates, they must belong to the other students here." Looking at the different doors, he saw the one Bakugou came out of, which said: _K. Bakugou_. This sparked interest, causing him to glance at the door the duo-colored boy came out of: _S. Todoroki._ was what was on the nameplate. "Todoroki?"

The name caught his attention, as if Midoriya was trying to figure out if the name was familiar or not, but he couldn't think of anyone who had that name. "Yes?" Todoroki, that was a name that he would start to remember, but as of now? His focus was on the nameplates in hopes he could recognize some of the students here.

His room was at the beginning of the hall, and from the looks of the hallway, there were more than just the ones in this hall. Starting to walk through the hall caught Bakugou's attention, whom he'd forgotten was there. "Oi, deku, what are you doing?"

"Trust me on this," walking down the hallway, his eyes glanced over every room from _T. Asui, M. Mineta, D. Kaminari_ to _M. Ashido, R. Sato,_ and _M. Ojiro._ "I see nineteen rooms here, so I think it's safe to assume we're not the only ones in this school."

Coming back from the corner turn, Midoriya didn't recognize any of the names, which had him confused. "Did you notice something?" Todoroki, he wasn't one to talk to anyone he didn't know, but because he wasn't the only one trapped in a school, closing himself off wouldn't do anything to help.

"Nineteen nameplates, all of which belong to someone different-." As Izuku was about to continue figuring out this part of the building, there was a four-toned noise that came from a monitor at the crease between the wall and the ceiling.

 _"Ahem,"_ it was a... creature, almost unable to tell what it was because of how it looked. He couldn't tell if it was a bear or something else. _"All students, please make your way to the gymnasium for your formal graduation ceremony."_ The video feed cut off, which caused all three boys to look at one another with confusion.

"Well, we should get going. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of something I don't think we'll have a choice but to do." Walking out of the hall without a second thought, Todoroki didn't pay any mind to anything but his destination.

Lightly patting himself in hopes he could find something similar to a map, he felt a large boject in his pocket, a large and square object. Taking it out of his pocket, he turned it on to see his name in a typewriter font: 𝙸𝚣𝚞𝚔𝚞 𝙼𝚒𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚢𝚊. There was a subsection labeled 'Map', which he clicked on.

The tablet pulled up a layout of the first floor with a blue arrow being around where he was. As if to test something, he moved forward to test something, which the arrow moved with him. "It seems as though the arrow on the map is where I'm standing, so it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out where the gym is."

As if talking to himself would solve anything, he began unconsciously walking to the gym, turning himself with the corners to see how far away he was.

☯

Making his way to the gym, he opened the door to see a diverse group of students, no older than 16, look at Midoriya with confusion. "You must be another student here," it was a girl with a black ponytail to her left and in a school uniform.

"Oh, y-yeah. Is it all of us here, or are there more?" Without thinking of getting a headcount, he glanced around the room in hopes of getting an estimate. He counted 19 students total, though one of them was invisible.

"Nope, as far as I can tell, this is everyone. After that weird bear thing came on the monitor, I think we've been waiting for everyone to get here." That was coming from a student with black roots and red hair. 

"I'm _not_ a bear," a sudden voice caught everyone's attention, which caused them to look at the stage in hopes that whatever just talked would clarify would talk again. Instead, some sort of animal crawled on the table and sat in front of the mic.

"Woah, what the hell is that thing?" Everyone looked at the animal as if it wasn't a real thing. It was odd seeing some sort of bear being the one that kept them inside the school. 

"I am Headmaster Nezu of UA high, though you can just call me Nezu." There were chairs in rows, something that made everyone realize that it could've just been a normal ceremony. However, Midoriya's gut went against his thoughts, which was just proof of showing how odd this situation was.

 _'It's not possible, this entire thing isn't possible. An animal being the headmaster of the school and having a calm and carefree voice? Something's definitely out of place.'_ Izuku couldn't quite put his finger on it, something about him made him feel uncomfortable.

"Waaaahhh—?! That bear can talk?" The short one with the purple balls on his head, that one was the one that made the sudden statement out of shock, but it also looked like he was in complete fear.

"I'm sure there's just some sort of speaker talking inside..." that voice came from a boy, one that had yellow hair with a black streak on the side of it. "That seems like a logical option, right...?" Sounding more like he was talking to himself, the boy was doing his best to keep himself calm.

"I've told you already, I'm not a bear," because he was being serious, his tone was genuine, though the face didn't exactly line up with the voice. "I'm Nezu, and I'm you headmaster." Putting his paws up from his sides, he knew there was a chance his message wasn't getting across.

"It moved!" The short one seemed to be reacting verbally with tears in his eyes, whether it be out of shock or out of fear.

"I bet it has some sort of remote control making it move," this entire event made the kid with big lips was trying to see some sort of logic behind why it was talking as if it were normal.

"Comparing me to a child's plaything or a robot? That hurts," pretending to be hurt by the words Nezu heard, he put his paws at the bottom of his eyes and ribbed them, pretending to cry.

"So you're not a robot?" After a pit of silence from Izuku specifically, he deemed it to be a good time to ask whether or not the creature was real or if it was manmade.

"Being called a robot sounds simple, I'd rather call myself a complex controlled system with the skin of a rare animal, AKA, not a _bear._ " Glancing to the kid with the black streak in his hair, his focused back to the group of students.

"What are we doing here? How come you've locked us in this place?" Nezu knew about the memories that were removed, which even included the year they spent in high school.

"Now then, movin' on, we must go ahead and get started." Completely ignoring the question, he proceeded to go on with the topic. "First, let's talk about what your school life will be like here. You students are so full of potential, you're even considered **the hope of the world.** To protect such hope, you'll all live a communal life together within the confines of this school." That last sentence caused everyone to go into high alert.

"You mean... we have to stay here for the rest of our lives?" That realization was the one that went to every student, which caused them to widen their eyes as a response. 

"If you wouldn't interrupt me, I'd be able to answer the questions you have _after_ ," glaring at the student who said that, the student with the black hair and odd-looking elbows. "Everyone will live in harmony together and adjust to living life within the walls of the school while following the rules and regulations. Regarding the end date: there isn't one, meaning you'll be staying here until the day you die."

"Until the day we die...?" Something about the creature not saying, "for the rest of your lives" didn't sit right with Midoriya, almost as though it made him feel like there was some sort of double meaning.

"Fear not, as we have quite an abundant budget, so any conveniences, we can provide. You've been completely cut off from the outside world, so you won't have to worry about any outside ties." As if saying those words were supposed to act as support or comfort, it did just the opposite.

"Meaning the pads that cover the windows, they're there to keep us trapped in here?" As if trying to keep a calm perspective on the situation, Midoriya rubbed his chin in hopes that his brain could process everything that was going on. 

"That's exactly what they're there for. No matter how much you try to scream out in hopes of getting help, it won't come. You'll have plenty of time to find out whether or not what I'm saying is true." Putting one of his paws to his mouth in a fake thinking notion, he acted as though something important came back to memory. "However, there is one way to leave the school: the graduation clause. If one person were to _murder_ another and get away with it, they can easily leave the school."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins, Dangan Ronpa themed My Hero Academia. I hope you'll enjoy this book as it came from pure spite and idea, and if you feel comfortable doing such, leave comments so I can reply to any sort of question you may or may not have about the book. Each section will be showed by what the number is in front of the period, so it goes as "section.part" in the title. When a section is done, that means that both the class trial is over and the execution has occurred, causing the book to move onto the next part of the story. 
> 
> At the end of the day, any comments left, I will try to answer as soon as possible, but I am still working on "Of Unknown Origin" and "Neutrality." Updating this book may take some time, but this one will be my main point of focus, considering this one won't be longer than 45 chapters total. That's all for now, have a good day/noon/evening/night. :)


	3. 1.2

_Murder, the one word that couldn't sit right with anyone within the class,_ the same thing that made those who were in the gymnasium look at Nezu as if he were crazy. _"Murder?"_ The word didn't sit right on anyone's mind, especially not Midoriya's. 

"What gives you the idea that we're going to murder one another?" That was someone different, someone who had big lips and was on the verge of fearful tearing. It seemed more like his mind was in a state of denial rather than wanting to accept the additional fact that this was his life.

"Because if you don't," as if his playful tone changed to something deadly serious, the Headmaster looked at everyone with a look of active knowledge. "I'd hate so see the upstanding future hope of the world ended." With a maniacal laugh, he was being serious, which only set in more fear than expected.

"So you're basically saying to either play along with this barbaric game or die in the same game where our lives are on the line?" Trying to get ahold of reality, _their new reality_ wouldn't be easy. "Absolutely not! I will not be living here while you see our lives as some sort of toy." The one who was talking was invisible, but her clothes showed a basic idea of where she was.

"If you checked your electronic handbook, none of the students can harm the headmaster and the headmaster cannot directly harm or attack a student in any way possible. If you glanced at it, you'd know," sass was in his voice, though he was being honest when he mentioned the e-Handbook, everyone checked their pocket or pouch that had one.

"That's what that big piece of electronic junk is? You couldn't have shrunken it down to be more compact?" It was somewhat clear that there were a few people didn't believe in the whole killing game.

"Not that that matters or anything, everyone here has two options: you either cut off all of your communal ties to the outside world and live here until you die, or you kill one another in order to escape back to the people that so desperately care about you." There were a lot of things he was leaving out when it came to the outside world, but they were going to have to discover that on their own time.

"And what if we go with neither? Besides, there's obviously a way in and a way out," considering that sounded like a logical plan, almost everyone chimed in. "That seems simple enough, doesn't it?" 

"Do you think I'd let you go that easy? You're all the world's **hope** , which I volunteered to hold everyone here. I didn't think you'd **want to leave after willingly coming here** , would you?" There were some things in his words that stood out farther than expected.

"What the hell makes you think I'd come willingly to this shithole?" That was the only familiar voice Midoriya knew: Kacchan, but this time, it didn't relieve his nerves that he heard that voice. "I should blow your ass to pieces," as it was normal to see that Bakugou was confident in his quirk, he rushed toward Nezu in a quick pace, lifting him off the ground.

His arms were flailing around in a somewhat panic, as if he was still having to adjust to the fact that there wasn't a way out unless there was a murder. "If you paid any attention to what I just said in the last 5 minutes, you'd know that attacking or harming the headmaster is a violation and results in punishment." 

There wwas a faint beeping that came from Nezu, one that started to speed up in sound and tempo. "W-What's going on, why's he beeping?" It was clear that one of the girls, specifically the one with pink skin was panicking.

"Throw it, if the beeping is getting faster, throw it," that came from the student with the earlobes as headphone jacks. Reluctantly, Bakugou threw the headmaster into the air, which it then exploded seconds later. 

"Did that get rid of it?" All of the students were being cautious, not just of the headmaster but also of one another. The thought that one person would have to kill another in order to get out of the school only instilled a sense of fear and awareness within the 19 students.

"Do you people really think that me self-destruting would get rid of me? I'm the school's headmaster." The voice was coming from an unknown source, to which a replica of the headmaster popped up from behind the desk.

"Damn," knowing there wasn't a way to fully get rid of him, it seemed the students had no choice but to accept their new living situations.

"Now, another thing: as the killing game progresses, you students will be able to explore new parts of the school. Until then, you're only confined to the first floor. Remember: I'm always watching," with that, Nezu disappeared, leaving the students by themselves.

"If we're going to be stuck here, we should at least get to know one another's names so it's not too confusing." Midoriya was the first one to break the silence, which was enough to somewhat encourage the other students to go ahead and formally introduce themselves. "I'm Izuku Midoriya."

"Eijiro Kirishima," came from the student with the black and red hair, though it was clear on his face that he was in some sort of panic from being locked in a school.

"Katsuki Bakugou," Kacchan, he was the next one to speak up, though his name came out more like an irritated grumble.

"Denki Kaminari," a kid with yellow hair and the black piece, that's who was speaking up. He looked nervous, though it was probably because of how much he was sweating.

"Kyouka Jirou," the girl with the elongated earlobes was the one talking next. Her left index finger was twirling the earphone jack out of boredom, but also to occupy herself.

"Momo Yaoyorozu," it was strange to hear that name, especially because Midoriya had heard it once before. It was from some sort of company, a large one that contributed to other countries than just Japan.

"Yuga Aoyama, you've probably heard of me," as he finished speaking, he posed in a weird position, looking somewhere, though it wasn't clear.

"Not at all," mumbling to himself, Midoriya looked to the group of students that still hadn't spoken up.

"Tooru Hagakure, nice to meetcha," she was… energetic despite the situation they were in. The defining feature, _or lack thereof,_ about her was that she was invisible.

"Mina Ashido," another student who sounded cheerful, though hers was a bit more forced than normal. She had pink skin, orangish-yellow horns, and messy pink hair.

"Koji... Koda," next to speak was the student with the weirdly shaped head, though it was clear to him that he wasn't much of a talker.

"Mezo Shoji," his voice was muffled through the pale blue mask he was wearing. Trying to first speak through his hand, he expected his quirk to replicate a mouth on his hand, but nothing happened.

"Fumikage Tokoyami," the student that spoke up next had a bird-shaped head, though the rest of his body was seemingly normal. Izuku guessed that his quirk must've been a mutation type, though he couldn't know for sure.

"Mashirao Ojiro," speaking up next was the one with the tail sprouting from his back. Though he was trying to keep a cool composure, it was severely lacking because of how much of a scared expression was written in his eyes.

"Shoto Todoroki," saying his own name wasn't going to be easy, especially because his last name was a permanent reminder of his father. Speaking of which, Shoto found it somewhat weird that his father wasn't looking for him, but he was also somewhat relieved.

"Tenya Iida," the one speaking next was very formal, strict, and straight to the point. His one defining feature was the engines coming out of his calves. Though there was a chance that was his quirk, it didn't mean he could fully use it.

"Hanta Sero," there were only a few students left, though the one thing that immediately ccaught Midoriya's eyes was his elbows being large and circular. It was _abnormal_ , to say the least, but it was clear that his elbows had something to do with his quirk.

"Rikidou Satou," the voice was coming from a bigger student, one that maybe had a quirk surrounding his body, but it wasn't easy to tell from first glance. His lips were thickerthan the average size, which was something that could help him figure out who was who.

"Ochaco Uraraka," she wasn't overly bubbly like some of the other girls in the class, though her defining feature was her pink cheeks. They weren't too red ot be considered fake, but they were noticeable enough that people automatically thought she was blushing normally.

"Minoru Mineta," he had some sort of smug voice, but the first thing everyone noticed was how abnormally short he was and his purple ball hair. After him, it seemed everyone had one another's names, which was the basic level.

With nothing else to say to each other, they all left the gymnasium and left to their rooms. This wasn't going to be an easy journey, though it was going to be a long one.


	4. 1.3

Because of their lack of time sense, the only thing any of the students could go off of was the morning and nighttime announcements. Speaking of the devil, there was the four-toned noise that came from the monitor that was in everyone's dorms. **_"Ahem, UA Academy has an announcement to make: rise and shine, students. It is now 8 AM, as such, nighttime is over."_ **

The monitor cut off, leaving Midoriya to the silence in his room, which he couldn't deal with too much. Leaving his room, the first place on his mind was to meet in the common room, which was where everyone usually met for breakfast. Tempting as it was to knock on Bakugou's door to see if he was awake and okay, he left the thought alone and headed to the dining hall.

Opening the door and expecting everyone there, the only few who were missing were Momo, Jirou, and Denki. Because of the situation they were in, no one knew if they were alive or if they were taking their time. That line of thought was disrupted when the sound of the doors opening broke the awkward silence.

"So it seems like almost everyone had the same idea?" Considering the three missing students were arriving now, all of their fear settled down. Though it was clear almost everyone was unsettled by the knowledge that they were trapped here with one another, it was difficult for Midoriya to keep a natural smile.

"Then how about we promise to come to the dining room first thing after the morning announcement?" Momo was the one to pitch the idea, which didn't sound too bad. "Deal?" Knowing it would be something simple, everyone nodded before getting their breakfast.

When breakfast was over, it was clear everyone had the idea of either going back to their room or going to explore the school part of UA, though that idea was cut short but a four-toned ring coming from the monitor in the cafeteria. **_"Ahem, this is an announcement from UA Academy: everyone please come to the gym as soon as possible. Anyone who doesn't show up will be punished accordingly, so don't be late!"_**

"We really have to go to the gym to talk to that creature again?" It was Mina, who sounded annoyed with the idea of going to meet the creature that kept everyone trapped in the school. 

"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice, do we? We might as well follow what the headmaster wants to avoid someone getting hurt," Iida, who was trying his best to keep his composure, knew better than to try to defy the person who was in charge of their well-being.

All of the students were reluctant to agree, but did so anyway. The walk to the gym was silent, as well as all of them standing around, waiting for Nezu to spring up somewhere. Watching as the creature climbed onto the stage, he sat in front of the mic and eyed all of the students to make sure they were present.

"Is everyone here? Good!" Taking a bit of a pause between his sentences, he pulled out a box of something, though no one could see inside to see what the items were. "I realized the reason no one started the killing game was because there was nothing to push anyone."

"Push people to killing? You mean like a motive?" Jirou, she was one of the smarter students who were able to adapt to something, regardless of what was going on and how it was going down. 

"Exactly! Motive, something to motivate you kids to start the killing game! Now then, in this box is the motive, which I've made for each of you. Feel obliged to go to the A/V room to watch them," disappearing from the line of everyone's sight within a second, Midoriya was the first one to move to the box to see what was in there.

"It's DVDs, each of them with our names on them," he said it only loud enough for everyone to hear, which caused them to walk up to the box and grabbed their DVDs before completely looking over it. "What do you think is on them?"

"If it's motive, then I'd assume it'd be something that'd hit close to home, right? So all we have to do is not let it get to us and we should be all right." Todoroki was the one to pitch the idea, but that's not how things would go down in this scenario.

☯

Everyone sat down in the different seats with headphones that could connect to the A/V players. From Midoriya's perspective, everyone looked like they were watching their videos, which gave him enough courage to start his.

_**"Izuku Midoriya, the child of Inko Midoriya and the pupil of All Might,"** the beginning of the video didn't look too bad. Inko and Toshinori were sitting on the couch, innocent smiles on their face as if they were proud of him._

_"I'm so proud of you, Izuku! I knew you could get into UA," his mother, who was smiling almost ear to ear, looked innocent in this shot. This gave him enough assurance that everyone and everything he cared about was okay on the outside._

_"Young Midoriya, I knew you could get into UA! Now remember everything I tought you, everything you trained for, and that'll be your biggest key to success." His smile, it had hope that Midoriya would grow up to be in his image as the symbol of peace._

_However, this feeling of hope was short-lived, as the next shot showed the couch they were sitting in as it being a complete mess. The stuffing from the cushions were visible, there were large gash marks on the pillows and on the walls._

_The windows that once poured in sunshine from the outside were broken, and some of the shelves and off-screen objects were in frame, either shattered or destroyed. The sudden scenery change was enough to bring Midoriya down to the feeling of fear, despair, worry. _

**"Oh, but what's this? Whatever could've happened to Mama Midoriya and All Might for the scenery to change? How would you find out, Izuku Midoriya? I guess you'll need to find out after graduation."**

The video cut off, to which Izuku slid off the headphones, having to stop himself from crying tears of sadness and anger. At the moment, he didn't care about his surroundings enough to pay attention to anything else.

"I-I have to get out of here!" He wasn't sure if it was fear or if it was rage that made him want to get out of the academy and check on his mentor and mother, maybe it was both... Coming down from fear wouldn't be easy to do, though there was a sudden hand on his shoulder that caught his attention.

"Izuku?" It was Uraraka, but he was still on such high alert that he almost went into fight-or-flight response. "Izuku!" Calling out his name again was enough to fuly snap him out of his daze.

"Uraraka?" Hesitantly setting the headphones down, he looked towards everyone else, who clearly had a similar reaction to the motive videos. "You finished your motive video?" She looked pale from fear, though she was trying to hide it through a smile, but failed miserably.

"Mine had my parents, and the aftermath..." she had a look of sadness and fear, knowing she was trying her best to stick to the promise the group was trying to keep to one another. Though it was obvious no one took the idea of not being able to check on their family/friends lightly, the thought of killing was outweighing any hearty or personal choice.

Looking around to everyone else, it was clear something was on their mind, though it wasn't clear what was. Mineta, who was the short one, was panicking, and by the looks of it, it was for a different reason. "I-... I need to go back to my room," getting out of the chair he was sitting in, more like stumbling, Midoriya left the A/V room and went back to his room.

☯

Sitting in his bed, an unknown amount of time passed before the four-toned ring came from the monitor in the dorm. **_"This is an announcement from UA Academy: it is now 10 PM. As such, it is officially nighttime, meaning the doors to the dining hall will be locked. Sleeping anywhere besides the dorms will be met with punishment. Good night students, and let the sound of the cicadas rock you to sleep."_**

The screen cut off, but that didn't exactly mean everyone would immediately go to sleep. Midoriya's eyes were drifting to sleep, though there was a knock at the door that stopped him from going to sleep. 

Thinking it was a figment of his imagination, he waited until there was a second set of knocks before he would fully go to sleep. Unfortunately for him, there _was_ a second set of knocks, one that made him roll out of bed to get the door.

Getting up from the ground, he lazily walked over to the door, looked in the peephole to see who it was before answering the door. "Mineta...? What're you doing here?" It was strange for him to be here, knowing the fact that it was past 10 PM, which was usually when everyone was asleep.

"Hey, man, I know this might be a weird request, but can I bunk in here tonight?" He was right, it _was_ a weird request. As Izuku's mouth was about to form a question as a response, he continued. "The motive, it's makin' me feel scared about tonight, so what do you say we swap rooms?"

Because he was tired already, Midoriya couldn't find anything wrong with the request. Taking the key that had his first initial and last name engraved out of his pocket, he gave it to Mineta, who, in turn, gave him the key to his dorm room. "Thanks, Midoriya, I owe you one," forcing a smile onto his face, Mineta watched as Midoriya left the room, presumably to go to Mineta's room.

Without a care in the world, Izuku plopped onto the bed and fell right to sleep.


	5. 1.4

Waking up by a familiar four-toned piece coming from the monitor, Midoriya sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked over to the monitor. **_"Ahem, UA Academy has an announcement to make: rise and shine, sleepyheads! It's a brand new day, and as such, it is now 8 AM, meaning nighttime is officially over."_**

The screen cut off, to which Midoriya crawled out of bed and changed from his pajamas into the clothes in his clothes. _'We usually meet in the dining hall, so everyone should be there...?'_ Leaving his dorm room, he looked over to where his actual room was, though there was something off about it.

 _'The nameplates?'_ Glancing between his room and Mineta's original room, he noticed the room he left had his own nameplate. _'I guess that means switching rooms didn't do anything,'_ not focusing on it too much, he walked to the dining room, opening the doors and letting them close behind him.

"Oh, Midoriya, good morning!" That was Momo, who seemed energetic, though it was odd, to say the least.

"Momo, you're overly happy. Has something happened?" Because of their condition, it seemed as though no one was genuinely happy, more of it being a look of forced expression. 

"I was looking through the warehouse during nighttime last night and I found out this place has lavender herb tea. I made some already, but it seems as though this can's almost out already. I also found that they have this elusive tea called Gold Tips Imperial, would you like some?"

 _'So she's a tea fanatic, that's nice to know,'_ there was still something off about the morning, he couldn't pin it at first. "Hey, have you seen Mineta since the morning announcement?" Midoriya, he didn'tt know where he was, but he was hoping there was a chance the two could talk.

"No, do you think he remembered the promise to come to the dining hall?" A feeling of unease rose inside his gut, to which he rushed out of the dining hall, catching the attention of almost everyone.

"M-Midoriya?" That was Uraraka, who could tell something was wrong, started to chase after him. 

He, on the other hand, rushed over to the room with Mineta's nameplate, planning to knock on the door, though, when he pushed on the door, it opened. "W-What the...?" Trailing off, he entered the room, though the site didn't help his rising fear.

There were "scratch" marks on the wall, floor, and on the dresser on the wall. The door to the bathroom was creaked open, the tension in the room growing thicker. "M-Mineta?" He was trying to stop his mind from going to the worst possible conclusion, though it seemed that wouldn't be needed.

Pushing open the door to the bathroom, his eyes laid on the body leaning against the wall, _Mineta's body_. _'This is in my room..._ **THIS IS IN MY ROOM!'** That harsh reality hit him suddenly, to which he realized the suspicion of who did it would automatically be placed on him. Screaming, that's the only noise he could make, the only noise his brain could think of making.

☯

Uraraka, who'd been following him, heard the scream, though it seemed she wasn't the only one who heard it. "W-What was that?" It was Jirou and Denki who heard Midoriya's scream, though they almost reacted the same way when he realized where he was... _and what was in front of him._

The four of them couldn't handle the sight, to which they left the room, trying to process everything that was going on. There was a familiar four-toned tubne coming from the monitor on the wall.

The screen lit up, to which it was Nezu sitting in the chair with some sort of margarita in his left hand. _"A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time, which you may use to your advantage, the class trial will begin!"_ Those words didn't do anything to ease the feeling of despair growing within their minds.

Watching the screen cut off, the rest of the students piled into the dorm room, knowing the room was the only one open and the only one that Midoriya's screaming was audible from. "W- tell me that wasn't real," that was Sero, who looked like he was in complete disbelief of what was going on.

As if on some sort of odd cue, Nezu popped up in the room, out of nowhere. "Now then-!" Though he was about to say something important, most of the group jumped out of sudden shock. 

"WWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-! T-That thing, it's here," Ojiro jumped back, making a sound that seemed like it was half-human and half-whatever. 

"I would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me," grumbling some sort of incoherent sentence, it looked as though, if he was able to, Nezu would've scratched him. "Now then, something everyone's been waiting for: it's the Nezu Mystery file!" There was a beep that came onto the E-Handbook, catching everyone's attention.

Seemed as though everyone was in sync, considering they all reached for their student handbook to see what it was. "Now then, the basics about this case are in the file, and have a fun, **but very limited** investigation." Though he was about to leave, there was something else he had to say. "Another thing, if you don't figure out who the blackened is by the end of the class trial and come to a viable conclusion, **everyone, including the blackened, will be punished accordingly.** " 

Disappearing without another word, everyone stayed silent. Starting to flip through the handbook, people started to back away from Izuku. "W-Wait, what's wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?" It seemed as though they were speechless, though Jirou, the one who had the headphone earlobes, finally spoke up out of the darkness.

"Midoriya, the file says that this happened **in your room.** Do you have any sort of explanation of as to why it says that?" Though it was clear her composure was struggling to be kept up, she had enough courage to continue talking to Midoriya.

"Me and Mineta swapped rooms last night, I-I have his key in my pocket," being quick to take the key out of his pocket, the key fell to the floor before he picked it up. The engravings said, "𝙼. 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚊," proving his point of having an alibi.

"It doesn't stop the question of what you were doing in his room and what he was doing in your room, so would you mind explaining that?" It was a good question to ask someone that, to which the only thing Midoriya could say was the reason Mineta came to him last night.

"He said he was scared, so he came to my room after night time began, asking to swap rooms with me for the night." Though there wasn't any sort of physical support with what he was saying, the only thing he could use to justify what he was doing in Mineta's room.

"It doesn't stop the fact that we're all suspicious of you. I don't think you should investigate on this one, there's a chance you might get rid of any evidence." That was Momo speaking, who sounded logical, considering the circumstances.

"Maybe we shouldn't fully cut him off from the investigation. This _did_ happen in his dorm room, after all," it was an odd feeling of relief when Iida stuck up for him, though there was the other feeling of having to deal with to investigate the death of one of his friends.

"Then how about, to make sure nothing potentially happens with the crime scene, we have 2 people guard it?" Tokoyami, who was usually a quiet person, was the one suggesting the idea of protectors of the case.

"I'll protect the crime scene," Kirishima, the one with the red hair, he was the one who suggested he be one of the people to look after the crime scene.

"And I'll be the other one. It'd be better to leave the investigation to the smarter people." Sero was the one to speak up next, to which the group knew there wasn't going to be a chance for the culprit to change anything at the scene.

This sort of thing, no one in the group hoped that this would be a normal thing, something everyone wouldn't be able to adjust to. Midoriya, who had some sort of fear in his eyes, had to muster up enough courage to look around to get things done. However, it still didn't stop the fact that he was feeling of despair rushing through his body.

"...Midoriya?" There was a hand that rested on his shoulder, one that somehow managed to ground him back to earth, temporarily stopping the anxiety attack he was about to have. "Are you sure you'd be able to pull yourself together for something as heavy as this?"

It was Kirishima, who could see the active sweat dripping down his face, but more importantly, the _genuine fear in his eyes._ "I have to, he was killed in my room, all because we switched dorm rooms for one night. I don't know if this was an intentional attack to me... but I need to figure out how and why this happened."

"Alright, but remember, there's only a limited amount of time before that class trial thing begins." From this, Kirishima left Midoriya alone so he could start the investigation.


	6. 1.5

However, before Midoriya had a chance to begin investigating, the four-toned tune played from the monitor in the room. **_"All right, I think I should announce this, but everyone come to the gym before investigation begins."_**

That was the one sentence that stopped him from being able to do anything to figure out who killed Mineta. "Seriously, man? Of all things, it had to be now?" Kirishima was a bit annoyed with the headmaster, especially because it was clear everyone wanted to get this out of the way.

"I don't think we have a choice but to go. I couldn't imagine whatever "punishment" Nezu might have have planned if we didn't listen." Sero was the one to speaking, to which it seemed a bit odd that he wasn't already going ballistic from the situation. It appeared as though his facade was working better than expected.

"You're not scared, Sero?" Kirishima was the other one to notice something was off, though it seemed it wasn't too much of a hassle for him to be acting normal. 

"I'm fucking terrified, but fear only goes so far, and it doesn't do anything in this situation." It had logical thinking, so much so the rest of the group brushed off the topic and began making their ways to the gymnasium.

☯

With Midoriya being the last one to enter the gym, Nezu waited a moment before popping onto the stage. His expressions were optimistic, _which would've explained why it made everyone in the room tense up._

Though it was clear everyone was on edge, it didn't stop the fact that Bakugou was known for being hostile. "What do you want, you shitty son of a bitch?!" Though his usual style of thinking was rash, he knew better than to violate the school regulations.

"Such naughty words, you should really be careful with your words, don't you think?" As gleeful as Nezu sounded, there was the tone of seriousness in his voice. "What I was going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted: since the first death has occurred, I'm giving you a total of 4 and a half hours to thoroughly investigate the crime scene. Once it's clear that everyone's finished, the class trial will begin."

"Yeah yeah, you've mentioned the class trial, but you must be an absolute idiot if you think any of us are going to willingly go to that stupid thing!" That was Hagakure, who was only able to be seen by her clothes, though her tone of voice proved she was agitated. 

"You make it sound like I'm giving you a choice, Miss Hagakure," jumping down from being on the table, Nezu looked amongst the crowd with an unsettling grin, as if to prove a point that he was the one in charge. 

"Who's to say _you are_ the one in charge?" Pushing through the crowd, she could hear some of the students let out unpleasant groans from how strong she was. "You're just some sort of creature, who's to say I couldn't topple you?" 

"I'm practically trembling, you're so threatening!" Though it was sarcasm, it was enough to invoke anger to the point of her rushing towards the creature in an instinct of straight terror. Time passed as if it were fast, because within a second, _maybe two_ , Hagakure had her left foot on Nezu's head and the right foot on his chest.

"I knew it, you weren't in charge of anything. How's it feel, knowing I'm the one on top," she was being overly boastful, it was strange.

"How do _you_ feel?" It seemed like, despite of all of this, Nezu was being serious about what he was planning to say next.

"Huh?" Though he'd mentioned this sort of thing in the E-Handbook, it was her responsibility to read through it, even if she didn't want to. 

"Violence against the school headmaster is strictly prohibited, which results in punishment." It was rule 5, the one that was even in bold, but it wasn't something she didn't care to read through. From her reaction, it was clear that she was just hearing about it, though that didn't matter. 

Lifting off his body almost immediately, it was clear by her trembling figure that she was scared of what the "punishment" part meant. "W-Wait, I didn't mean it," backing awaay from the headmaster, she started running, though it didn't do anything.

"Hail to me, great spirits of the north." It was a sarcastic sentence, but it seemed like time slowed down, just enough that it felt like everything was in slow motion. Some sort of weapon, it looked like multiple spikes were stuck onto a high-speed drill, but it was moving towards Hagakure.

Pounding on the door, as if pleading for her life, her movements came to a halt when the drill caught up to her, digging into her flesh and bone until the spikes came out on the other side. "T-This..." she knew the second any of the spikes moved, her life would end, but even then, the internal bleeding was catching up to her quickly.

Everyone in the room was too frozen to speak, which would've been a normal response, considering they watched one of their classmates die. "N-No..." blood trickled out of her mouth and dropped onto the floor, showing just how serious their situation was.

The spikes retracted from being on the drill, leaving them to drop while still being lodged inside her body. When her body hit the floor, that's when everyone stared at Nezu in horror, well, _almost everybody._ Midoriya was the type who didn't believe it'd actually happened until he rushed over to the corpse.

Feeling on the ground, when his hand brushed up against her arm, he used it to track down to her wrist. Checking for a pulse didn't do any good, considering the pool of blood surrounding her body only got bigger as the seconds went on. "She's... she's gone."

"As I was saying before I was so _rudely_ interrupted... since this is your first class trial, your E-Handbooks will be saving any vital information you find, as well as a visual photo of said information. By using your E-Handbook to write basic notes, these notes will automatically be filled out the more you find things out about that specific piece of information. Call them what you will, but when the class trial is over, all saved information will be archived and deleted at a later date."

"You're really going to graze over the fact that you killed someone right in front of us?" That must've been Sato, but Midoriya was still too frozen and unable to process anything that was going on. His reality was hazy, to say the least, and it didn't help that he was expected to investigate the death of his friend, _the death that happened in his dorm room._

"She didn't follow the guidelines when it came to what's inside the E-Handbook, so yes. It was her fault she **didn't look in the list of rules in the student handbook.** If she did care to look, she wouldn't have tried to go against the violations." Looking as though he was close to laughing, he used one of his paws to cover some of his mouth.

"Can't you tell we all want to get out of here? Forcing us to kill our friends, how unethical must you be?" With tears streaming down his face, Midoriya was failing to keep his act together. The whole thing of murder, regardless of how much of a facade one mayy put up, it didn't stop the fact that they were teenagers.

"Well, you can either play the killing game until there are only 4 people left and get back to the outside world, or you can **stay here until the day you die, living a communal life.** " Those were the two options, and quite frankly, living here without having to worry about the chance of there being a shortage of anything? It didn't sound bad. "Now then, go ahead and investigate, I'm not giving you much of an option."

"And what happens if we don't come down to the right culprit?" It was a fair enough answer to ask, considering it was either kill or be killed in this circumstance. Since Kirishima wasn't going to be doing much investigating, it seemed only fair that he would be the one to ask that question.

"Then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, understand?" It was simple logic, and considering there wasn't much room for discussion, everyone left the gym. Kirishima and Sero went back to guarding the crime scene, though Izuku was the type to believe that everyone was counting on him.

Walking back to the crime scene, it was clear his mind was still clouded from what went on in the gym, though there was someone to help get him back on his feet. A hand went onto his shoulder, to which he looked at said hand before looking at the source: Jirou. "Jirou...?"

It was normal that she wasn't the one to open up to anyone, let alone talk to anyone. "Do you want some help on your investigation?" It was a sudden question, to which he quickly nodded. "I know someone can only look so much before they might need a second pair of eyes."

Both of them started to walk towards Midoriya's room, the crime scene, knowing there was the chance this would either work perfectly or would fail miserably. 


	7. 1.6

The first thing Midoriya went to go check out was the body itself. Maybe there was some sort of sign that could help find out who the culprit is. Because he wasn't one to get squeamish at the sight of blood, he looked closely to try to find something incriminating. 

There was... something off, to which he looked at the corpse one last time. The first thing he noticed was the right wrist sitting in a position that looked dislocated. Lifting that hand, the first thing he caught onto was the displacement. Pulling up the sleeve, he gently ran his finger against it, only to find out that piece of information.

Taking out his E-Handbook, he went to the notepad and wrote a bullet point: "right wrist is broken." Because of the write-to-text feature, it turned his handwriting to simple text on the screen. Scooting his knee to shift his body, he noticed the knife lodged in his chest.

Though he was about to investigate it, it wouldn't feel right if he had to deal with literal blood on his hands. Stepping out of the room, he looked over to the camera and waved once or twice. It was enough to signal Nezu that he needed his assistance, which was easily picked up on. 

With the creature appearing in the room from some sort of unknown crevice, he waddled over to the greenette. "What'ddya want, Midoriya? I was in the middle of my soap opera," he sounded agitated, which was illogical, but this place wasn't always logical.

"Do you have a pair of gloves? I would use my hands, but..." he didn't have it in him to try to say the rest of it. This sort of thing wasn't supposed ot be normal, _murder_ wasn't supposed to be the new normal. 

"You wouldn't want to contaminate the crime scene, hm? Well here, since you and Jirou are gonna be the ones to go through the crime scene," he pulled out two pairs of non-latex gloves, handing one to Jirou and the other pair to Midoriya.

Both of them placed the gloves on, to which Nezu disappeared again, this time fully leaving them to investigate. Going back to the bathroom, he knelt in front of the body, this time placing his left hand to the right of the knife and the right hand to slowly pull it out. 

For some odd reason, there was something familiar about the knife, something he couldn't quite make out yet. Holding the knife in his hand, he walked out of the bathroom. "H-Hey, Jirou? Can I ask you to do something right quick?" Catching her attention was enough to get her to let up from being on the ground. 

"Me first: are you a clean freak?" Without lifting her eyes from the ground, it was clear she was talking to him.

"Not necessarily, why?" It was a weird question to ask, but he had no memory of wiping his room down, let alone to this extent. "Did you find something?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. Considering this is your room, I'd expect to see your hair here, but there's no trace of it anywhere. Why do you have the murder weapon in your hand?" Considering that must've been a vital piece of information, considering she was already writing it down in her E-Handbook.

"Recognize the handle?" Using his left hand to grip the top of the knife, he removed the hand gripping the handle. There was something familiar about it, to which he'd have to look around to see. 

"Not just yet, but the one place there might be a correlation is the kitchen. Do you want me to go over the body once I'm done here?" It was a plausible idea, to which Midoriya nodded before hurrying out of the room.

Stepping inside the dining hall, he noticed Todoroki and Bakugou were having a pretty heated conversation. It seemed his prescence was enough to temporarily stop the conversation. "Deku, what the hell are you doing here?! And what the fuck are you holding?"

"The murder weapon from the crime scene! Don't mind me, though, I still need to figure out where it's coming from." Stepping into the kitchen, not the dining hall, the first thing he noticed when his eyes scanned around the room was the knife rack. The sizes of the differnet knives were consecutive, though there was the second to last one missing. 

There was only 4 out of the 5 knives on the shelf, to which he looked at the handles for comparison. It was a match, meaning there was the chance that the culprit came here yesterday before evening. The one thing he had to do now, that wasn't return back to the crime scene, was go around and ask everyone what they were doing and when.

Walking back out of the kitchen, Midoriya's eyes glanced over to Todoroki and Bakugou, to which he could see both of them were tense. Without saying anything, he forced an innocent smile on his face before leaving to go back to the scene.

On the way back, he noticed Momo hesitantly standing outside of the door to the crime scene. "Momo...? What're you doing here?" It was a bit concerning, considering she didn't say anything about either helping or harming the investigation.

"I-I want to help, but the sight of blood, it's..." it seemed that was all he needed to hear. Nodding understandingly, he kept the knife out of her line of sight.

"Oh, that's understandable. Instead of worry about the crime scene, can you do me a favor? Can you go around and ask everyone what they were doing yesterday and if they were in the dining hall at all?" It was a small task, but considering a lot of people were still pretty shaken up, this would've been the bare minimum to ask.

"Sure, and I'll write it down in my handbook so I can show it to you later." Walking out of the hallway, Momo took out her handbook and started to walk around. There was a map of where everyone was when it came to their handbooks showing their location, so she started with those who were closest.

Entering the room, Midoriya was about to walk into the bathroom, though Jirou had just came out. "What did you find out about the knife?" It was the first question to ask, and considering it was the reason it looked like the crime scene was missing something, it must've been important.

"It came from the kitchen rack, Midoriya, I want you to check something, and look closely when it comes to inspecting the body." Knowing he was expecting Momo to go around and ask people of their alibi, that was the next thing he could focus on.

Walking back into the bathroom, he knelt in front of the body, placing the knife where it had been before. Though he was about to get up, he noticed some sort of writing on the wall. Using the back of Mineta's neck to gently push him forward, he looked at the writing on the wall. 

Pulling out his Handbook again, he turned off the write-to-text and wrote the following: Ոɿ૦Ոɿ૦. At first glance, he kept seeing it as NIONIO, which didn't make any sence. The best thing he could go off of was the idea that this was some sort of dying message. Looking towards Mineta's left finger, he noticed the blood, which only proved that piece of information.

Setting the body back into it's original position, he got up and turned the write-to-text feature on again. Exiting the bathroom, it was clear Jirou was done. "I want you to look around and try to figure out what happened here, I'll go around and see if there's anymore evidence that could've done." Leaving the room without another word, Midoriya looked around the room.

The first place his mind went to was the trash, and no, not in that reasoning. Looking over at the lint roller, it was somewhat noticeable that it was a fairly new once. Rummaging his hand through the trash, he found the crumbled up lint sheet. Taking a moment, he wrote everything he'd found so far in his Handbook, knowing the feature of the note-taking option.

 _'I guess the next important thing I need to do is look at Mineta's motive video, maybe that could give me some sort of hint of how and why he died,'_ it was a plausible idea, though there was the knowledge that they didn't switch rooms until nighttime, so the DVD would be in Mineta's actual dorm room. 

Leaving the crime scene, he walked over to the room he slept in, though there was something off, something he didn't notice at first. Standing towards the middle of the hall, he looked between the door of Mineta's dorm room and his own, which was when he noticed the difference. "The name plates were switched? Guess that didn't do much when it came to wanting to feel safe. I should probably write that down."

Doing as he said, he wrote down the information in his Handbook before proceeding to enter the dorm room regardless. Looking around the room once, he checked the trash can, and luckily, the DVD was inside the covering. Picking it up, Midoriya made sure to keep it in hand when he left the dorm room, though when he was just outside the door, Jirou was there.

"Did you notice it? The door?" That sentence somewhat threw him off, especially because he wasn't aware of what that meant, nor did he notice anything off.

"What's wrong with the door?" He also didn't know which door she was referring to, which made it more confusing. 

"The bathroom door, go in there and check again. After that, meet me in the trash room," walking out of the hallway, Jirou's tone was able to prove she might've known who the culprit was, and quite frankly, it was shocking to see she'd already put everything together.

Going back into his actual dorm room, he closed the bathroom door, only to notice the handle was holding on by a single screw. Looking over to his drawer, he opened the top drawer, though there was some sort of red scratch over the top. It looked like it belonged to someone, specifically a female. 

Taking out his handbook, he took note of the color, just before proceeding to open it and check the tools. The only thing that looked like it was used was the flathead screwdriver, which matched the types of screws used. Now the only other major thing he had to do before meeting up with Jirou was to check with Momo for everyone's alibis.

☯

Walking out of the room, he knew there wasn't much else before he had everything he could get on the crime scene. Looking around, he noticed Momo coming his way, which he knew the alibis would hopefully be enough to help him lead to who the culprit was.

"Oh, Momo, did you get everyone's alibis?" He was trying to sound peaceful, though, with everything going on, it was clear in his voice that slip-ups were bound to happen. 

"Yeah, I'm sending you the notes right now. Hopefully, I've been of some sort of use," holding her Handbook to her chest, there was something about her nail polish that stood out. 

"Question Momo, what happened to your nail polish? It looks smudged?" That small detail of her red nail polish being smudged only made his mind race at an immense speed. 

"Oh, right, I didn't realize that painting my nails then changing into my pajamas would cause it to accidentally smudge." It was the sort of thing that happened, either that or brushing your fingers against something while the polish was wet. _'What am I thinking, there's no way... right?'_

Once his Handbook got the invitation, he opened it up, which automatically transferred the data from Momo's Handbook to his own. "All right, thanks, I'm gonna go meet up with Jirou, maybe you could go hand out with Todoroki?" Since it was clear that the only thing he needed her to do was to get something done, it seemed this was the last thing that was important before time would run out.

"Ahh, okay, well, I'll see you at the class trial, then," her words sounded like it was a mix of being excited and being fearful, maybe it was because neither he or she could fully accept the fact that one of their classmates killed another... This sort of thing was weird, and Midoriya hopes it wouldn't become the new normal. Then again, with everything Nezu was putting on the group, there was a chance that this _would_ be the new normal, dreadful as it sounded.

☯

Walking into the trash room, Midoriya noticeed Jirou going over the contents in her handbook before looking up, though there was also Shoki in the trash room. "Oh, hey, Midoriya. Jirou told me we were waiting on you to arrive?" It was clear he didn't know the entire picture, though it was considerate for him to wait on a classmate.

"Yeah, it is. What are we doing here, Jirou?" There was the other thing of the matter, which he wanted to see the importance of this place. 

"Shoji, you can open the door and show Midoriya what's there?" Getting off the wall, she walked over to the gate, watching as it lifted up before walking inside. The first thing that all of them noticed was the fact that the incinerator was on, though it wasn't on the night before. 

"That's strange, I didn't leave it on last night," Shoji was referring to the incinerator being on, especially because this was the second time he used the key to open the gate. Clicking the button to turn the incinerator off, he noticed the broken glass around the button, though it looked like some sort of bottle.

Being careful to pick it up, he could smell some sort of strong fragrance, which he'd probably would have to ask the females about it later. It was perfume, which was something that he could've sworn was familiar, but he couldn't remember who he'd met when that person was wearing it. 

Adding that to the notepad, he got up from kneeling on the ground, only to see there was some sort of pinkish-red fabric, obviously separated and burnt off from the original piece. That was familiar, which he knew it belonged to one person, the one person he didn't want to admit to himself that it was.

There was a four-toned tune that came from a nearby monitor. **_"Okay, I'm getting bored... is everyone done with your investigations? That's good, I guess. Everyone make your way to the double red doors near the gym. Don't be late, if you are, I'll drag you there myself."_**

Now came the part that no one really wanted to do: forcefully figure out who the culprit of the murder was. Two classmates, two _friends_ , both dead. One by the headmaster, and the other by the cuplrit of the case. This wasn't going to be something easy, especially because it was a sacrifice of lives.


	8. 1.7

There was a chill running down Midoriya's spine, only out of fear that the person he'd suspected wasn't the one that actually killed Mineta. To have the reality of one of his classmates be dead at the hand of another, and with the reminder that if they didn't guess the right person as the culprit, everyone would die? It seemed like there were multiple weights on his shoulders.

Literal sweat started streaking down his face, to which a hand landed on his left shoulder, causing him to flinch: it was Bakugou. "You better not fuck this up, Deku," it was kacchan's version of empowerment, and considering he didn't do much investigating, it seemed like the class trial was going to be dependent on him.

"I-I wont," he wasn't one to stutter, however, when his anxiety spiked, he'd become a muttering mess. Dropping his head, he watched as the door opened, though he noticed the circle having 20 different slots. This sort of thing caught everyone's attention. 

"Nezu, why are there 20 slots if there were 19 students here?" That was something Kirishima picked up on, which Nezu let out one of his more sinister laughs. "Wait, what's so funny?" Looking at the circle again, everyone noticed the portaits with the "X" over the faces, showing they were dead.

"That's because the 20th student is locked up here somewhere, though you won't have to worry about them until you discover the second floor of the school. After all, I'm quite certain the 20th student doesn't realize any of you exist. Now then, step onto the assigned pedestals." They didn't have much room to object, to which all of them got into the pedestals.

"Now then, a basic explanation of the class trial: During the trial, you'll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for "whodunnit." Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you vote the wrong person, I'll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and that person will graduate from this academy. Also, refusing to vote for someone will result in your death, so you better vote for someone. Now then, let's get this show on the road!"

"Before we begin, what's going on with those pictures?" Considering the "X" over their face made it feel slightly unsettling, Jirou wanted to know what all they meant.

"I'd feel terrible if they got left out because they died. So I put up these _beautiful_ portaits of them to commemorate them!" Him being happy only made everyone have a chill run up their spine. To have a constant remind that either someone killed another person or they were the victim wasn't the best thing to have as a constant reminder. 

"Okay, then let's get started. First up is the case summary, so let the class trial begin!" Monokuma was the one to say that first, to which there was a quick silence in the room before the first person began speaking.

"Let's start off with the fact that the murder took place in Midoriya's room, and by the looks of it, that was where he was taken by surprise." The first person to talk was Denki, who had a look of pity in his eyes.

"He probably didn't have a chance to resist," that was the sentence that was wrong, and considering it was coming from Momo, who _didn't_ step into the room at all, it was safe to say that sentence was incorrect. 

"I don't think so, Momo, if you remembered how my room looked, even if you weren't in there investigating, it's safe to assume there was a struggle." Knowing he had Kirishima and Sero able to back that sentence up, it was clear that he remembered how his room looked when he first went in.

"That's true, it looked like a cat fight took place," Sero, scratching his head awkwardly, remembered the crime scene like the back of his hand, knowing he was one of the two who guarded the room.

"A struggle? Between who and who?" Tucking her arm under her chest, it was clear that the discussion of death wasn't comfortable, yet they didn't have a choice.

"Between Mineta and the culprit, of course. Considering all of the marks in the main room, it's safe to assume that's where he was attacked first, and went to hide in the bathroom. It's obvious the killer got in..." the one who was talking that time was Todoroki, and considering he didn't do much investigating, he was going off of the facts of the matter.

"The doorknob, it was hanging on by a screw." That was the other piece of information that seemed valuable, and considering it would show how the fight went down, it was a fairly important piece of information.

"So you think a boy must've done it? I know there was the whole thing of boys having toolkits and girls having sewing kits," Uraraka remembered the notice being on the wall, which would've been a good piece of evidence, though there was something else sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Not likely, given me and Mineta switched rooms, that means that, regardless, both of our rooms had toolkits. Besides, when I went to go look at my set, it was open and the flathead screwdriver showed signs of already being used." Knowing that the only way to get in was by removing the handle, it seemed that was evident of how Mineta died.

"...So what next?" Considering no one really wanted to investigate, it meant only Midoriya and Jirou had an understanding of what might've went down. 

"Next should be the murder weapon, and what Midoriya found out about it," considering Todoroki wasn't talking about both him and Jirou, it must've meant that he wanted Izuku to say the next part. "So, Midoriya, what did you find?"

"It's a kitchen knife, the murder weapon was a kitchen knife. It came from the rack, but it wasn't the biggest weapon of choice. There weren't any signs of it being damaged from the attack," considering there was the missing knife and it didn't show signs of being damaged, that only helped him figure out where it came from.

"So the murder weapon's a kitchen knife, but where does that get us? We all know Midoriya killed him, right?" As if saying that was supposed to make things clearer, considering it was coming from Momo, it was a shock to hear her say that.

"That's right, Midoriya's room was the scene of the crime, that should be enough evidence, shouldn't it?" Such "friends" were quick to blame someone else, but given that it was do that and survive, it was somewhat understandable for that to happen. Taking into account that it was coming from Sato, who was quick to blame without much evidence, it was shocking but it wasn't surprising.

"How about we draw our conclusions _after_ the argument, okay? Otherwise, this gets us nowhere besides being in an argument for hours on end." Shoji, it was the first time he'd spoken up in the class trial.

"We can talk all we want, but it's not going to change the fact that the body was found in Midoriya's room. What _else_ do we have to go over?" He sounded impatient, which was suspicious, but with the class trial being the one thing that everyone's lives depended on, it was justifiable.

"I don't think that's true at all. I'm sure if we keep going on, new evidence may reveal itself." Jirou, it was relieving knowing that all hope wasn't lost yet.

"I mean, if the knife came from the dining hall, it must've meant that Midoriya went into the dining hall when no one else was there, and took the knife to stab Mineta with it." Noticing that came from Iida, who was starting to struggle with keeping his composure about him being the "role model," it... it hurt.

"I don't think so, after all, **Mina, didn't you say you saw someone come into the dining hall?"** From the notes Momo gave Izuku, he had enough time to go over everyone's alibis around the time of the murder.

"Huh? What were you doing in the dining hall, Mina?" Though, around 6-7 PM everyone was either in their dorm rooms or exploring the school, to know that she must not have moved around from that location, it seemed like an important piece of information to know.

"I was in there by myself, and I wanted to try one of the donuts from the kitchen. I remember seeing Mineta come in and go to the kitchen, but I didn't bother checking to see what he went in there for. After that, I just returned to my dorm room and slept until morning!" Maybe it was her way of helping herself get through the death thing, but being cheerful and optimistic at this time wouldn't have been the best idea.

"Do you think Mineta went into the kitchen to get the knife?" That piece of information was vital, and taking into account that it wasn't the culprit who got the knife, it might've just set some of the scene into motion.

"Before we continue, I want to ask the creature something: if there's an accomplice to the murder, do they also become "blackened?" Because if so, that would mean there would need to be two executions if that happened in this case." It was somewhat assuring knowing that if there was the chance of an accomplice, it would probably mean that both of them would get called out.

"As you ask, I will answer! Only the blackened or culprit of the case will get to graduate if the class trial goes in their favor. The accomplice gets nothing out of the murder, meaning no chance of profitting from helping the culprit. S'Not like there's even one in this case... did I say that out loud?" Brushing off his next to last sentence like it was nothing, it only proved the culprit was the only one in this case.

"Wait, so that means there's no accomplice, so shouldn't we start to focus on why Mineta came and took the knife? After all, to come into the kitchen means you would have to pass Mina, but shouldn't there have been someone else after him?" This was the first time Tokoyami had spoken up during the trial, and frankly, his question was a good one to pose.

"There is that possibility, but Midoriya, you've yet to fully prove that you're not the killer." And just like that, a single sentence from Ojiro caused everyone to start to shift the blame back on the greenette. 

"Seriously?" Though he was about to go into another rambling session, Jirou spoke up to cut some of the tension in the room.

"It's still too early to blame anyone. If the room did belong to the killer, then it wouldn't explain what they did." He'd almost forgotten, though when he pulled out his Handbook and went to the note section, he saw what she was referring to.

"You mean the excessively clean floor?" Seems as though that caught the attention of almost everyone in the room.

"Eh?" Since Kirishima was having a bit of trouble trying to piece together what he meant, Midoriya looked over to Jirou before looking over to the portrait of Mineta.

"Because the murder took place in _my_ room, it would be expected that my hair be at the scene of the crime. However, when Jirou went over the place top to bottom, there weren't any hairs in sight. Mine wasn't there, neither was Mineta's, which probably means the culprit cleaned the room to divert the fact that they were there in the first place. Why would I get rid of my own hair from my dorm room?" 

It seemed like a plausible question, and considering no one had an answer, it was safe to assume that everyone wasn't blaming him for the murder anymore. "Then why wasn't there any hair on the ground?" Momo, who was just as confused as Sero, wanted to know why the killer removed traces of DNA from the crime scene.

"It's to remove the chance that we could've found evidence leading to who the killer was." Iida was starting to understand what everything meant, but there was still something off about the situation. "Meaning that it'd be beyond any sort of reason to believe that the room's owner and the culprit are one and the same."

"So we're really just gonna go off of the absence of hair for the reason Midoriya's not the culprit?" Aoyama, who surprisingly hadn't said anything beforehand, was now butting into the conversation as if he'd always been there.

"Yes, but it's not just the hair that shows he's not the culprit. There's something different about the bathroom door in Midoriya's room, isn't there?" Looking over to Midoriya next, it was a fairly strange question to ask, but it did need to come in handy.

"Because my door didn't fit into the frame quite right. It's too big, and the only person I thought to mention it to was Mineta, meaning the killer didn't know the secret behind the door. After all, the doorknob was only holding on by a single screw. If they did know about the door, there wouldn't have been screws missing from the door."

"So that and hair was enough to prove that it's not Midoriya. I guess it would prove that he didn't kill Mineta-" though Mina was willing to accept the situation, Sato wasn't sure it was safe to let go of the suspicion held over Midoriya's head.

"If it comes to the heat of the moment, you'd have to kick it down, not use some sort of "hack" to get in, there's nothing shocking about it." Seems as though there was still suspicion from his classmates.

"You still don't see how? Alright, then let's take another look at how the incident unfolded."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone knows how to put a photo into Ao3, could you please comment that? I still don't know my full way around the website :(


	9. 1.8

"Since the incident took place in Midoriya's room, the fight must've started in the main room," Jirou was referring to the marks around the door, as showing it was the struggle. "He then fled to the bathroom."

"The killer followed him into the bathroom, though they tried to bust down the door. It didn't work because the door was too big to get into the frame." Bakugou was the next one to talk, and it seemed like he could follow along.

"So, because of that, it would give the appearance it was locked, which meant the killer would need to use some sort of tool to help them get inside." Knowing that must've been the next important point, Todoroki was keeping up with the argument between those who were participating.

"I agree with that, and considering when I looked at my toolkit, I noticed the flathead screwdriver showed signs of use. It was the flathead screws that held the doorknob on, so there's no mistaking that's what the killer used. After all, only the female ones lock, so it was strange the door couldn't open."

"Okay, but why would the killer believe that the men's one could lock? After all, it was stated on the notice on the wall." Running a few fingers through his hair, Ojiro remembered reading through the notice when he first stepped into his room.

"Probably because the killer must've been female, and specifically, **one who didn't read the notice.** If they did, they would've known better than to use the screwdriver to get in." There was that piece of evidence, but there was still something else. "Besides, how did the killer know to come to the right place if Midoriya and Mineta allegedly switched rooms?"

"The name plates, someone must've switched them, if not Mineta himself. The fact that switching rooms for the night didn't change the fact that it happened in my room. This sort of thing led to the door being shut, meaning the killer didn't know the door hack." That brought them back to square one, though Mina had a question.

"I have a question: how did the culprit get into Midoriya's room in the first place? I mean, is there a way to lockpick the door?" That was an amazing question, but considering Nezu let out a gasp in sarcastic offense, it caught everyone's attention.

"I specifically designed the rooms so that no one could lockpick their way into another person's dorm. Honestly, the fact you suggested that hurts my feelings as a headmaster, especially after all my hard work." There he was again, pretending to be the victim. Nezu... it was clear he had a fluctuating personality type, so getting him to say anything useful would've been next to zero.

"What if Mineta dropped the key somewhere?" Though there was the idea of that happening, the only time the key was outside of the room was the morning after, which led to the body discovery announcement.

"That'd be too convenient," as weird of a idea it was, there wasn't a possible way for that to happen, especially considering everyone was supposed to be inside their dorms after nighttime began. 

"This might sound stupid, but what if Mineta **let the killer in**?" As random as it sounded, it wasn't a bad idea. "I mean, they could've knocked and he would let them in without hesitation." Because it was coming from Todoroki, it didn't sound like such a bad idea, but it still sounded ignorant.

"I doubt-" though Midoriya was about to interject, Jirou held up a piece of paper, one that looked like it had been revealed through shading. 

"Actually, that would be correct. It seems whoever Mineta wrote to was the one who killed him. I know it's not something to consider, but his fear could've been an easy lie. After all, I found what he'd originally written from a notepad, which I'm glad he writes hard, or else I wouldn't have found it." Holding up the note, Midoriya had to take a good look at it to read what it had.

 _"Hey, can you come over to my dorm? I have a way for all of us to get out of here, and look at the name plates to make sure you get the room right, got it? - Mineta"_ was the content of the note, and considering it was enough to prove that his earlier contradiction was wrong, it was enough to click into his head the real reason behind the room switching. 

"So the real reason Mineta switched rooms with Izuku was to frame the crime on him, or else he wouldn't have requested to switch rooms in the first place. It seems like the "fear" he had was nothing more than a facade to make Midoriya look like he was the culprit," knowing the note could've been the reason he was murdered, it seemed like adding that piece of information was crucial to the trial.

"That note was probably the reason she was murdered, though it also meant that it was intention that he wanted someone to come over. How can we be sure, however, that someone would've gotten the note? After all, it does say "my" as if it was indicating to come to the room Midoriya was staying in." Hearing that come from Uraraka made sense, and 

"I don't think so, the name plates on the outside of the room had been switched, meaning they didn't come after Midoriya. If mentioning the name plates was apart of the note, then who's to say that Mineta didn't switch them himself?" Though it was clear that it would've been fairly difficult, considering he was roughly 3-and-a-half feet tall, it didn't mean there wasn't enough time for it to occur. Hearing the question come from Todoroki made it seem as though it was a plausible theory.

"Considering he told the reader to check the name plate, it only made sense that he did it. If he did that, he must've also figured that, by switching the rooms, it would make it easier to blame Midoriya on the case." Having that idea come to mind also brought up a sudden outburst from Kirishima.

"So whoever was invited over was the killer!" It was a previously established fact, and though it was clear he was trying to pitch in and help, it didn't stop the fact that no one knew who came over. 

"Which we still don't know who came over, shitty hair!" Bakugou, though he was mostly silent for the majority of the class trial, it was clear he was trying to piece together the information. From his past school records, it was surprising he wasn't more involved with the class trial/

"I think we need to first figure out what happened after the killer was invited over." It sounded simple, but there was one other factor that didn't quite fit. "Which reminds me, there was some sort of plastic object at the scene-" as Sero was talking, Midoriya was quick to scroll through his notes to pick up what Sero was talking about.

"It was metal, some sort of baton, maybe. By the looks of it, if it were to hit someone with the right amount of force, it could be the reason why his right wrist was broken." Knowing about the broken wrist was enough to have Momo look at Midoriya in confusion.

"And how could you have known that's what broke his wrist?" Because it was a metal object, all it had to do was take precision, which should've already spoken volumes about the sexual identity of the killer.

"Because there was nothing else in the room that would've been used with such precision to break his wrist. Speaking of, it runs back to what I was saying about the killer being a female. If I'm not mistaken, the killer might've known the different areas that could be hit to break a wrist, so who's to say that the map of the body that comes in the sewing kit didn't already show potential areas?" The fact that Midoriya knew what came inside the sewing kit made everyone look at him in confusion, well... those who didn't read the notice.

"And how do you know that, you damn Deku?! You're not even a female," though it was clear that Bakugou didn't read through it either, it only proved his point. 

"If you read the notice that came in the room, it should be pretty clear. It said that men get the toolkits and women get the sewing kits with the layout of the anatomy. Who's to say it didn't mention anything about temporarily slowing someone down?" It was a good enough question to ask, and considering no one had thought about that, it seemed fair enough.

"So when the fighting broke out, the culprit might've had to use the weapon to protect themselves, if we're going off of the idea of the culprit attacking first." Though Shoji was trying to make sense of the entire thing, it didn't stop the questions that came after it.

"Meaning that the baton was used first, and used to attack Mineta... poor guy," if that were the case, it wouldn't have explained why the person coming over was prepared for the attack. 

"I don't think the baton was used first. If you remember the handle, though it was made out of rubber, there was still a large gash. It probably means Mineta invited them over with the intent of killing the culprit, only they killed him first out of self defense." Midoriya knew there was the chance of MIneta planning to kill someone in his room.

"Which would explain why there was a second weapon there. So if there's a chance the two tussled, the culprit would've needed to have something on hand. And if we add in the knowledge that Mineta came to me about wanting to switch rooms, then..." he didn't want to admit it to himself, especially because this was someone he considered a friend.

"It lines up with an assailant attack, as in... Mineta wanted to pin the crime on you using the fact that it originally took place in his dorm room. If he went out of his way to get a weapon from the kitchen, write a note to the culprit, and used all of this to his advantage to implicate the crime onto you." Todoroki, who was understanding the situation, though it didn't bring that much attention to who killed him.

"If he did all of this to make Midoriya look like the blackened, then that would potentionally make us believe he was the killer." Iida had a feeling there must've been something else, something more important when it came to how everything played out.

"It'd be easy just to say, "who did it?" Besides, there's nothing else when it comes to clues, is there?" Momo was the one talking, and considering there were two more things that still needed to be discussed.

"There are still two major things: the dying message and my toolkit. See, in the dying message, Mineta wrote "NIONIO," and looking at it suddenly, I couldn't see what they meant. However, when I wrote them down, I made sure to keep the text feature off. Now, what does this look like to you?" Pulling up the section of the notepad where he wrote down the dying message, he showed how it looked.

"Ոɿ૦Ոɿ૦, and it's in such a weird writing that I couldn't see anything about it. Now that I look at it fully, doesn't it kinda look like Momo?" Midoriya didn't need to look at the teenager to feel the amount of anxiety she was going through.

"Oh yeah, at first I thought it was upside down, but maybe Mineta wrote it in such a way that we wouldn't need to rotate the image." Seeing as though Sero agreed with that, it seemed as though everyone else was starting to understand the situation. 

"O-Okay, that's gotta be some sort of coincidence. I'm the killer, do you really want to say something as ignorant as that?" Knowing there was still one other thing that made it astoundingly clear of what happened, it only made Momo seem more suspicious.

"It's not just that, isn't it? I mean, I found a smudge of red nail polish on the toolkit, yet, if you look at Momo's manicure, you'll see it's the exact same shade and smudged on one of her fingers." It was hard evidence, and trying to refute that would be impossible.

"As I've told you, I smudged it on my clothes last night," though it sounded plausible, there was the other thing of the smudge patterns.

"If you really did smudge it on your clothes, you would see the cloth imprint being left behind, however, yours was narrow and slim, as if you were struggling to open the toolkit." Todoroki noticed how one of her hands were being hidden by the other, which everyone started to pick up on.

"You've got to be joking, right? There's no way I could've killed anyone," she was getting nervously defensive, which only showed how guilty she was.

"Then how about we run through the case, step by step. That way, we can finally put an actual end to this madness and get out of here." Jirou was more than willing to run through the layout of the case, and considering Midoriya was the only other person who went through and investigated thoroughly, it made sense that it would just be those two.

"To start off, when I swapped rooms with Mineta, I had no idea that he would be using my room for the crime scene to set me up. He let the culprit in, who he was planning to kill. Instead of being to get a good hit on them, the culprit carried a baton on them just in case. That was the one thing that was used to deflect the attack from the knife Mineta had." Midoriya was the first one to talk, which Jirou continued.

"While the culprit and the victim were fighting, there was a swing to the victim's arm, causing the wrist to break. In an attempt to get to a safer zone within the room, Mineta ran to the bathroom. However, the culprit knew that this wouldn't easily be let go of. Knowing the bedroom of a male had the toolkit, the killer rushed over, opened the box, and used the flathead to get the door open." 

"Without much of an issue, the killer pried the door open and stabbed him. With whatever strength there was remaining, he wrote his dying message: the name of the person who stabbed them. Using the lint roller in my room, they wanted to get rid of any trace of them being there. After their clothes were covered in blood, they knew there were two or more ways to get rid of the blood."

"Washing the blood out of the shirt would've been more convenient, and considering that was the best option, it would be the best option. Besides, if it were to dry out during the night, there wouldn't be any evidence of the culprit." Jirou was the one who finished the case summary, to which Midoriya turned his body to look at Momo.

"Isn't that right, Momo Yaoyorozu?!" By the sounds of it, it seemed as though everyone had their ideas and votes ready, now all they needed to do was cast them to vote the blackened. 

"Well now, it seems as though everyone's ready to start voting! Now then, use the lever to cast your vote for who you think the blackened is!" Nezu sounded estatic, which didn't make anything about the situation better. 

When the voting time was over, the screen showed what the final voting results said. "Correct-amundo! The blackened of this class trial, the one who killed Minoru Mineta was none other than Momo Yaoyorozu!" The harsh reality hit the group like a train, and considering it was either kill and be killed, it was clear everyone still wanted to escape UA.


	10. 1.9

"I-I had to, he was either going to kill me or I had to kill him, there was no other choice." Knowing that her death was going to come soon, it wasn't much for her to want to grasp onto these moments of reality.

Because of her now grasping onto the fact that she was going to die, she wanted to know one thing or another. "You're telling me that from him getting into the bathroom, you couldn't have just left him alone?"

"Of all the people, you're telling me you _didn't_ suspect someone like him to murder you?" Knowing there was going to be an issue or two with how things were gonna go down, it was fearful knowing that it was her or them.

"With him being that short, I-" letting out a sigh instead of saying anything, she knew better than to say everything about what was going on. "I had no idea this was going to happen, the entire night."

"Too bad, isn't it? Now then, onto your punishment as society demands it!" Nezu, he was the worst when it came to bad moments. She still wanted to know about what was going on in the outside world, because she was going to her death, now was as good a time as any.

"What happened with my family? My mom, my dad, everyone I cared about? The motive video... was disturbing, but can you tell me what that means?" Momo was worried about how her friends and family were, she wanted to know that before she was executed.

"What'dyya mean?" Nezu knew about the promise he made to return the memories to those who were the blackened, though there was the other thing of him mentioning it for those who **graduated**.

"You said you'd return the memories to those who killed someone and went through the class trials." Hoping her gut wouldn't go to the worst possible idea, she wanted to know how everyone who she cared about was still alive. "Are they still alive?"

"Oh right, I _did_ say that I'd return the memories, **but did I ever say when?** " Taunting that piece of information, her gut was going to the worst possible outcome, which she didn't want to admit to herself.

"What happened to my family? **Tell me what happened to my family!** " Almost screaming those words, everyone could tell that it was her dying wish: find out what happened to the people she cared about.

"Now then, I've got a very special punishment for the **Everything Hero: Creati** ," though she never remembered making a hero name for herself, she didn't care what she had to do to find out.

Though she wasn't able to use her quirk to pressure him into saying anything, she wanted to fight him until she figured out the truth. " **Nezu, tell me what the hell you did to my family!** " Considering she was the type of person who wanted to get the truth, it looked like both of them were trying to hurry things along.

"It's..." dragging out the word, it sounded like his level of excitement was rising, as if _he enjoyed bringing despair to people_. **"Punishment time!"** With those words, everyone stepped off of their pedestals, which only left the actual execution.

Looking around in fear, she didn't know how Nezu was planning to start the execution, which kept her on edge. Without some sort of warning, a collar clamped around Momo's neck, one that wasn't loose, but wasn't a tight fit. Instinctively putting her fingers on the collar so it won't choke her out, physical panic set into her face when the collar started dragging her away from the group.

As if trying to look behind her, where she was being dragged to was some sort of industrial factory. 

☯

Being forced to put on leather overalls, Momo picked up tools from the toolbox with the knowledge of having to make a tower. Going to get a set or iron beams, she had to get a punch of old, iron nails to use to mount them together. There was a designated height she had to build to: 15 feet.

Putting the base together, she hammered in the hails with the poles, though it was already unsafe due to her not having gloves on. Once the first few poles were hammered tightly together, she went to go get the next few sets of poles. The only thing she noticed was that she was running out of normal poles, the rest of them had multi-directional spikes on them.

Setting up the next few poles, she was running low on iron screws, having to look for more. With therre being a storace closet to look through, she used a match to light a lantern on the counter. Closing the trap door on the lantern, she walked to the storage room in need of more nails.

It was a storage room, one that reeked of gas and other unhealthy fumes, though she didn't have much choice but to go through it. Looking around wasn't that difficult, thouogh it was getting hard to breathe, meaning she'd have to do this quickly. 

Getting out of the storage closet with 200 iron nails, the chain around her neck was starting to tighten. As she started to nail more of the normal poles together, she realized there was only one more pole left before she'd have to resort to the ones with multi-directional spikes. Rushing to get it done with the idea of completing the tower would get rid of her punishment was the only way she could think of getting incormation on her family.

When she used up the last pole, however, she had to get the multi-directional spiked ones. The spikes were roughly six inches each, yet very pointy, just enough that touching them would draw blood. Walking over to the other pile, she picked it up, though there was a spike that stabbed through her hand, causing her to let out a whine from pain. 

Dropping it immediately, she hadn't realized it fell on her right foot, causing her to scream. Now there was a hole in her right foot and a hole in her left hand, meaning she was limited to doing a few things.

Picking up the pole again, she used her right hand to drag the poles by the spikes, which seemed to work at the time. Setting them up, she found one of the more open points for her to put the iron nails. Hammering around the spikes, she put them on top of the normal poles, though the spikes put her on edge.

Building up more and more of the pillar, she used boxes to help her get past her normal height. Stacking the poles and nailing them together was a bit of a hassle, though she managed to get it up to 15 feet. Without thinking about it, she moved the boxes away, though she was still being near the tower.

Knowing the next thing she had to do was nail all of them together so it'd be stable, however she hadn't realized there were more screws around her than expected, meaning they were unstable. Moving the top box, she stumbled, landing on her back. "Ow..." Holding her head with the good hand she had, she noticed the pillar started to rock. 

Though she was about to move, her foot was caught, and though she tried to move it, the box had barbed wiring. Reckless as she'd been, if she wanted to get out of this with her life, she had to wiggle her way out of it. Being careful to get out of it, there were still scratches on her ankle, though she didn't care about it too much.

Once she got her foot free, it was too late, the beam was already leaning over, spikes and everything. "Oh, sh-" scrambling away, the one thing she could do was crawl, though it did nothing to delay the inevitable.

The beam tipped over, causing most of the spikes to impale her body, bringing immediate death to the teenage girl. 

☯

When the execution ended, everyone was shell-shocked, at least scared of how things went with her execution. " **EXTREME!!** " It sounded like Nezu was... happy that Momo was executed, though there was something about the situation brought waves of despair to all of the students.

"Really?! You made us watch our friend's execution, and that's all you have to say?" Midoriya, it was clear that he was one of the most affected, knowing that him persuing the truth was what led to her death in the first place.

"You still want to call her your friend, knowing that she killed another one of your so-called friends?" He sounded serious, though there were more things they had to deal with.

"Her execution lasted 4 hours, Nezu?! It doesn't matter what she did, it doesn't stop the fact that no one deserves to die as cruelly as she did! I know it doesn't justify her actions, but putting her to death like that?" Regardless of what happened, he knew there was more than one reason that this was unethical.

"But it is **my killing game** where your **fates are decided by your classmates**. After all, there's only so much you could do, and your quirks don't work within the school's walls. Now then, get back to your dorm rooms, the last student _is_ in need of help, and it'd be a shame if you couldn't find her in time." There was another student... that's right, the class trial circle had 20 slots.

Without much fighting, all of the students returned to their rooms, knowing nighttime was crawling upon them. 


	11. 2.1

_**"Ahem, UA Academy has an announcement to make: rise and shine, sleepyheads! It's a brand new day, and as such, it is now 8 AM, meaning nighttime is officially over. I've unlocked the second floor of the school, so feel free to look around with minimal restrictions!"**_ After Momo's execution from yesterday, all of the students were still on edge.

Sitting up, he barely rubbed his eyes to help him wake up, though the reality of the matter set into the greenette: his room was clean. Maybe it was because he was too tired to give a fuck about his surroundings, but now that he was awake, it was clearer that his room looked normal. There weren't scratches that showed a fight, which caused his mind to think of checking someplace else.

Getting out of the bed, he got up to get to the bathroom, specifically checking for Mineta's body. He was the first one to die, though there wasn't a trace of his body being in the bathroom, there wasn't blood, _nothing at all._ It was weird, but he had to continue playing like it was nothing.

Not wanting to get out of bed originally, Midoriya plopped back into bed, though his actions were cut off from someone knocking on the door. Groaning as he rolled out of bed, he stood up and walked over to the door and opened it, only to see Todoroki with a cup of something in his hand. "Nice to see you're still alive," not realizing that word choice wasn't the best, Midoriya rubbed his eyes before moving out of the way of the door.

"Poor choice of words, don't you think? Anyway, is there something you need? I was planning to go back to sleep," though there was a chance he couldn't go back to sleep for the rest of the day, not until nighttime, he wanted to stay in bed until he passed out. _'This must be the feeling of despair,'_ thinking to himself, he climbed back into bed.

"I don't think you could go back to sleep again, even if you wanted to. I saw Nezu earlier, and I think it'd be better if I told you to wake up, and not some robot animal." Knowing there was a chance that Nezu would show up into his room unannounced, there wasn't much for him to go off of. 

"So I have to get up?" Perceptive of the knowledge that he was the reason Momo died after killing Mineta, there wasn't much for him to do other than feel like a burden. "Fine." Izuku felt like literal shit, maybe because of the class trial, maybe because the murder didn't help them get out of the school.

"Coffee, and come to the dining room quickly, we still have our normal morning meetings." Seeing as though it was Todoroki who came to get him out of bed, it felt somewhat nice knowing there was someone he could trust. Setting the mug down on the table, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

Getting up from the ground, he trudged over ot his dresser, pulled out a pair of clothes, and put them on. Clearly feeling guilt from having to send his friend to death, he didn't want to talk to people, let alone move, but he didn't have a choice. 

☯

Making his way to the dining room, he pushed the door open, only to see seventeen pairs of eyes rush to him all at once. "Look what the cat dragged in. You look like shit, Midoriya!" Though Aoyama was the one person who everyone didn't have an issue with, Midoriya just nodded and sat down at the table and rested his head.

"Thanks, Aoyama, for the _generous_ reminder," keeping his head down to the table, there was ahand that went to his back, but not a hit, rather in a reassuring way. Not wanting look up, he still felt like shit after yesterday, which he didn't want to do anything for the rest of the day.

"Izuku, you can't keep sulking around for the rest of the day. I know yesterday was difficult-" it didn't matter who was talking, especially because Kirishima, _the person trying to comfort him_ , didn't do shit in the class trial.

"Do you, really? In a kill or be killed situation, Kirishima, it doesn't maatter who's on the chopping block! The fact that we're in this situation, being forced to kill our classmates in hopes we could sacrifice everyone else so _we_ can get out of this school, the one thing you're telling me to worry about is thar we're not in that tough situation anymore?!" Sitting his head up, his facial expression changed from annoyed to soft within a matter of seconds.

"I'm sorry, Kiri, I didn't mean to go off like that," Izu could see that his words hurt him, to which he was quick to deny his hurt feelings, knowing it wasn't entirely his fault.

"Aww, it's okay, Midoriya. I know you've probably had it the worst, but you can't be so quick to get down in the dumps. Just like Momo, we're all wanting to get out of here, even it takes time, _we will get out of here._ " Kiri, it was somewhat surprising to hear him be inspirational.

"And if we don't?" It wasn't the best thing to hear coming from Todoroki, and considering he had a pessimistic tone, it was clear he had little to no hope that anyone would be getting out of the school alive. "Think about it, no one's come to save us yet, we don't know how long it's been since we got here."

"Todoroki, c'mon man, it's only been a few days since we got here," Kaminari, as much as he was trying to sound convincing, didn't want to bring himself to believing that they were here longer than what he'd thought.

"Has it, really? All of our parents, any of the pro heroes, none of them have attempted to reach out to figure out where any of us are. Are you really going to believe that everything outside these walls are safe?" Trying to keep his cool wasn't the thing he was focused on, at this point. He didn't want to have anything to do with the game, yet his gut told him to stay inside the school.

"Shoto, maybe we should take a breath or two," Sato, who hadn't said anything since the day began, was the one hoping this conversation wouldn't take a turn for the worst.

"Didn't Nezu say that he unlocked the second floor of the school? How about we takke our mind off this conversation and see what else is in the school?" Mina, she was trying to stay cheerful, especially because she wasn't the type to fight unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Whatever," getting up from the table, Todoroki stormed out of the dining room, pushing both doors open with his hands before walking through the frame. Because of how tense the situation was, some of the students —Iida, Koda, Uraraka, and Ojiro— all left the room without saying a word.

As much as Midoriya felt like shit, he wanted to see what else the school had to offer. Getting up from the table, he felt it was necessary to say what he was gonna do, maybe in hopes that someone else would join him. "I'm gonna go explore the newer part of the school."

"I'll come with," Sero, it was clear to Izuku that he must've been uncomfortable with the situation, which was why he was willing to look around and find something new. It never hurt anyone to have a partner to have when it came to exploring an old building.

☯

When the boys left the dining room, Midoriya noticed a set of stairs that were in the hotel part of the school, which caught his eye. The gate was open, which Sero verbally pointed out, "this wasn't open before, and it's not in the school section."

"Do you think this might be another place like the hallway of bedrooms?" It seemed like an odd shot in the dark, but there were multiple things about UA that no one knew.

"I think the creepiest thing to find out is that there's someone up there, with it being a sleeping area." Hoping that what Sero said wasn't the case, Midoriya walked up the stairs first eith Hanta following after.

When both boys got onto the top step, their jaws dropped. The sceen was as followed: multiple cracks in the wall, debris blocking some of the hallway, doors either torn down, barely intact, or in multiple pieces. The lights were flickering, which made Izuku's gut tell him to haul ass and get out of there. 

"Sero, you're seeing this too, right? My brain isn't playing games on me?" Izuku and Sero, by the looks of the scenery and the facial expressions they wore, this was real, even if they didn't want to admit it to himself. 

"Nope, this is real, and I think we should get out of here," as much as he was willing to explore, this 'panic room' setting wasn't in his agenda to look around. Izuku, who was about to agree with him, heard some sort of rumble coming from farther down the hall, as well as a muffled scream.

Both boys looked at one another, just before their bodies moved before their mind could. Rushing over to the source of the noise, there was a boulder in the way of the door the noises were coming from. "Help me, Sero," starting to push the rock out of the way, Izuku never remembered training, which was why he was shocked when the boulder moved out of the way without an issue.

Opening the door, the sight was concerning, but it was scary: Nezu had a girl, someone who couldn't have been older than 16, in a choke hold. The girl who was in te chokehold had bruises and scrapes scattered across her body. "You boys always ruin everything, don't you?" Letting go of the girl caused her body to slump, though Sero was more focused on getting Nezu than the girl.

Izuku, who used his eyes to signal Sero to get Nezu, rushed over to the girl, having a faint idea of what to do next. Assessing everything on her body, he noticed multiple scar and bruises on her skins. "Can you tell me what your name is?"

"Tsu, Tsuyu Asui."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So our darling Tsu is here, finally!! However, don't you find it a bit suspicious that Nezu was holding her hostage in the first place? :)


	12. 2.2

"H-Hey guys?!" Calling out to all the students on the first floor in hopes they could share what was going on, there were a few students who rushed in, like Sato, Ojiro, Kaminari, and Bakugou. Midoriya and Sero, it was concerning enough that the two went exploring and came back with a girl littered in scars.

"Who the hell is this?" Bakugo didn't know who this was, how she got here, why she looked like shit, and her story. "And how the hell is she still alive if the cafeteria is down here? Who are you?!" Seeing as though he didn't read the room completely, Tsu flinched at his sudden tone.

"Bakugo, maybe don't yell this time. After all, we did just see her almost get choked out by Monokuma. Maybe read the room first," Sero wasn't usually the type of person to tell someone to dial down, but this was a fairly sensitive situation.

Taking a moment to realize everything, he found enough of a reason to calm down. "How did you survive all this time?" Acknowledging that this was another teenager trapped within the school, let alone one they didn't know before.

"I barely got fed, only when it was nighttime could I go get something to eat, kero. Other than that, Monokuma played with me like I was his rag doll. He'd throw me around, any new weapon he'd make, he tried on me, kero." With her voice indicating that she was still shaken up about the entire situation, her stomach rumbled.

"Hey Ojiro, can you go make her food?" Because Midoriya was focused on the frog-like girl and nothing else, he wanted to make sure she was okay physically and mentally. After examining all of the scars and bruises on her body, it was a miracle that she was still alive. Though they were noticeable, it was difficult for him to pull the correct length of some of the scars.

"All of her scars look pretty recent, Midoriya," Todoroki was the one checking her scars, only because he was better at determining around how old something was. "Some of them older than a day, but most of them were done earlier." 

"Tsu, do you know why Monokuma wanted to torture you?" Because it was a sensitive question to ask, she shook her head and fidgeted with her fingers. Either it was because she didn't want to answer the question or because she didn't know the answer. "I'm gonna go get the first-aid kit, make sure she eats and drinks, she's severely dehydrated as well."

Getting up from the table, he sprinted out of the cafeteria, only to be met with Mina's confusion and Jirou's dull face. "I heard your call on the floor earlier, what happened?" Since it was Mina asking the question, it made sense for her to look concerned and scared for what it could've meant. After all, it could've been a body, or it could've been something worse.

"Just go into the cafeteria yourself, it's difficult to explain," rushing away from the two, he went into the school section of the building. From there, he pulled out his handbook and used the map feature to find the nurse's office.

Walking the halls until he found the room, he noticed the heart on the door, causing his face to scrunch up in confusion, shaking the random symbol out of his head. Placing his hand on the doorknob, he tried opening the door, though it didn't work. Jangling the handle a few times, nothing changed, which wasn't a good thing whatsoever. "Nezu!"

"You called?" Ever the optimistic creature, Nezu appeared suddenly, causing Midoriya to jump a bit before closing his eyes. He _really_ had to work on how much he flinched from sudden words and movements. Maybe it was because of Kacchan, maybe it was something else, but that wouldn't do any justice when it came to being trapped inside a building like this.

"How come the nurse's office isn't open?" Collecting his composure with ease, Midoriya had to hurry with getting the bandages, meaning he didn't have the time or the patience to deal with any of the headmaster's shenanigans. 

"In order to get the door open, you must first answer a riddle," if Nezu had the capacity to smirk, his face would've shown how much he was enjoying the situation. Visual irritation started seeping onto Midoriya's face, to which he pinched the bridge of his nose in disbelief.

"Are you serious, Nezu?" As much as he wanted to kick the door down, damaging any sort of property would've resulted in his death. 

"Answer the riddle and I'll open the door. What word in the English language does the following: the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great, while the entire world signifies a great woman. What is the word?" Knowing he didn't have much time, Izuku began to focus on the riddle, still keeping the need to get into the nurse's office in mind.

 _'He represents a male, her represents a female. Hero must be the first four letters, and the entire word signifies a great woman...? What am I, a dictionary?'_ Not having too much time to think for himself, he blurted out the only word he could think of that goes with it. "Heroine, the word is heroine! Now can you open the door?"

"Correct, four-hundred points goes to the greenette! The door is open!" Waving his paw like he had magic, Izuku turned the doorknob to reveal the door was open. Not caring to question how the headmaster did that, he turned the light on and went over to the clear-casing cabinet, seeing the antibiotic ointment.

Rushing over to the top cabinet, he grabbed a medical bag to hold all of the supplies needed. From there, he grabbed a tube of antibiotic ointment, a few q-tips, stitching material, including the needle, and a pair of gloves. From there, he rushed back out of the nurse's office and towards the cafeteria.

Because Midoriya was the type of child to study many things, even if they wouldn't be needed, he learned things to help him get by in life. One of these things included cleaning and addressing wounds, which he could do, considering he'd gotten his hands steady enough to do almost anything he'd learned.

Rushing back to the cafeteria, Izuku opened the door to see multiple classmates looking at him, specifically what he was carrying. Some of the students, like Aoyama, Shoji, and Tokoyami, moved out of the way to let him get to Tsu. From there, he rushed over to the seat next to the girl, focusing more on her back wounds first.

"Do you have any wounds on your legs or arms?" It was a standard question to ask, and it would also help with figuring out what all to do when it came to bandaging her. As far as he could see, there were three major wounds, which he would focus on first before getting to the smaller ones.

"No, just my torso, kero," not knowing whether the "kero" part was from something else or it being part of her physiology, which he'd have to ask about later. "If you're wondering, my quirk makes me part-frog, usually I could heal faster if I was in the water, but I don't think there's a pool nearby."

"There is, it's on the first floor, as well as a sauna!" Hearing Uraraka's voice gave some sort of comfort, at least, just to the extent of everyone being here. While everyone was here, it meant no one would run the risk of killing someone, nor would they attempt to do anything with everyone around.

"Let me patch her up first, then you and a few of the girls can see if her healing factor comes into effect." Making it sound like he wasn't gonna be there to check, there were still other parts of the school side of the building he wanted to find. After all, this entire thing began with the hotel side, but he hadn't found anything on the school side.

"Are you not coming with us?" Sounding hurt, Ochako wanted to ask the question, and all things considered, just so long as she was okay, he wouldn't need to pay too much attention to her. There was the other thing of deep-rooted suspicion for everyone around him, just from the first class trial and what all it meant.

"No, I haven't fully explored the school side of the school," thinking he could deliver the next sentence normally, his nervousness about the question showed through his voice. "Besides, don't you think it'd be weird for a guy to be with a bunch of girls?" Though the situation was dire, it was easy for them to forget they're all teenagers. Midoriya didn't finish going through puberty, so it might've been awkward for him.

"Oh, sure, that's only if Mina and Jirou are okay with coming with me," glancing towards the two other females in the room as an offering, Mina nodded, leaving only Jirou's response.

Sure," considering all she'd seen on the second floor, there wasn't much else for her to do today.

Watching as Izuku patched up the final wound, he signaled with his eyes that she was ready to go. "Great, c'mon! Wait, what's your name?" 

"Tsuyu Asui, but you can call me Tsu." 


	13. 2.3

**_"Ahem, UA Academy has an announcement to make: rise and shine, students. It is now 8 AM, as such, nighttime is over."_** The night was over already, which meant yet another day of either exploring the building or dealing with Nezu again. 

Getting out of bed, Midoriya walked over to the bathroom, not to reminisce about what happened in the room, but rather to take a shower. As much as he hated this place, it'd been a day or two since he last had his shower, and he didn't want to risk having an odor.

Turning the water on, Izuku leaned against the wall, feeling a bit drowsy. Maybe it was because he'd just woken up, or perhaps it was because of everything that happened with the new girl, what was her name? Right, Tsuyu Asui.

To Midoriya, her case was weird. Wasn't one of Nezu's rules was that he couldn't harm a student unless they violated one or more guidelines? And didn't he also say there were some off-limit areas?

Once the teenage boy got out of the shower, he rubbed his body dry, putting on a clean version of the uniform. _'Can't forget to do my laundry today,'_ making a mental note of something to do, Izuku stepped out of his room with his laundry basket in hand.

From there, he walked into the laundry room, set his clothes inside, and opened the lid to the fabric softener and laundry detergent. Closing the lid once he set them inside, he started the load and leaned against the wall.

The other thing he was planning to do was go to the dining hall to check in on everyone. Getting up from the wall, he was about to walk to the door, though there was something on the table that caught his eye.

A pit of confusion and fear rose into the boy, given he processed the photo in its entirety. The photo consisted of him, Bakugou, which wasn't the surprising part, and all of the other students within the school.

  
That wasn't the main thing, however, _it was the fact that the picture was taken in front of the school they're trapped in._

It felt like all of the air in his lungs disappeared, given he started breathing shallowly. In this photo, he looked younger, almost to the point of him fresh out of junior high. "There's no way this is- it's not possible..."

"Whoops, you weren't supposed to see that! I'll be taking that, now!" Effortlessly jerking the photo out of Izuku's hand, Nezu looked towards the faces of the students before looking towards the greenette.

"Is that real? Did we know each other before you trapped us inside this building?! How come I don't remember taking this photo with anyone else, Nezu?!" He was starting to sound panicky, which was onset from the unknown reason of how and when the picture was taken.

" 'Trapped'? No no, Midoriya, don't get things wrong! You guys came willingly, to protect yourselves from the outside world!" Hearing those words only made him contract his eyebrows in confusion.

"Then what was so bad about the outside world that made us want to _willingly_ be locked up in a place like this?" He wanted to know the full story, even if it wasn't currently available to remember. He didn't care if he had to fight Nezu or fight a hundred Nezu's to get to the truth.

"As much as I love seeing you solve cases, you don't have everything to put two and two together to get the full picture. Don't worry about it for now, Izuku! Why don't you go meet up with your classmates?" It sounded like Nezu was purposefully trying to move off the subject.

Forcing himself up from leaning against the wall, he walked out of the room and toward the dining room. Many thoughts and unfinished ideas were swirling through his mind, meaning he also didn't know whether now would be a good time to mention this to anyone else or not.

 _"_ ** _Ahem, this is an announcement from UA Academy: everyone please come to the gym as soon as possible. Anyone who doesn't show up will be punished accordingly, so don't be late!"_** Hearing the announcement, everyone looked towards the monitor before looking towards everyone else.

"What do you think it is this time?" Denki sounded nervous, which was normal, considering the circumstances, but there was the other thing of whether the game was still going on or if it was over.

"If it is what my gut says it is, then the game isn't over... It's just beginning." Jirou was one of the few students who were able to grasp onto almost any concept thrown their way.

"Well, let's not dwell on something that may be insignificant. C'mon, I wouldn't want to see Nezu mad," Denki was trying to keep a light-hearted spirit through all of this, which he'd hoped would rub off onto the rest of the group.

The rest of the group got up without another word spoken, though Todoroki lightly grabbed Midoriya's arm, signaling him to stay behind. "Yes, Todoroki?"

"Are you okay? You seem pretty on edge. Did something happen?" Since Todoroki wasn't a man of many words, Izuku didn't know whether it would be a good idea to say what was on his mind without evidence.

"Nope, nothing at all, just tired," trying his best to give an innocent smile, there was a feeling in the back of his gut telling him that Shoto could tell something was off. For now, however, there were bigger things to worry about than feelings.

☯

Once all of the students were in the room, there was a bit of eerie silence before Iida interrupted the quietness. "If Nezu's going to call us to the gymnasium, he should at least be punctual and on time."

"Surely you aren't the one to tell me about time and being punctual, Iida Tenya." It seemed like there was something Nezu wanted to get off of his chest, though he knew better than to rush past the fun and get to the point.

"What does that mean?" It was a normal question to ask in this situation, almost as there was some sort of backstory purposefully being hinted at. Unfortunately, there wasn't any clarification, so it left most of them on the edge of their seats.

"Aww, let's not get too into that! The reason I called you all here is to discuss **motive**!" Hearing the final word set into their minds that Jirou's thought was true after all.

"I-I thought the killing game was over with, that we didn't have to kill anyone else!" Satou didn't want to have to go through something like that again, especially after Momo. Having to kill friends to save themselves, though it was necessary, it was unsettling.

"I never said anything about the game ending after _one round._ I just said that, once there's a specific amount of people left, the killing game will end and all of you will graduate." Ever the optimistic creature, Nezu didn't think he needed to clarify his words, but it seemed as though it was necessary.

"How many rounds do we have to go through before you stop this shit?!" The only times Bakugou went off the hinges? At the same time, there were large explosions that could've caused a building to come down. "How much of a sadistic bitch do you have to be?!"

"I'm not sadistic," it sounded more like he was making fun of the word and the possibilities it could run to, though that wasn't the case at all. "After all, I'm just broadcasting the show for the audience to see!"

"Audience? So we _are_ being watched?" Though it was a question in desperate need of answering, the robotic creature didn't respond to the question, rather laughing with a shit-eating grin.

"Onto the motive! Now then, following the same thing we did last time, the DVDs are in the A/V room, each labeled with everyone's names! From there, you'll plug in the headphones and watch the video on the disk!" The idea of going through something like this again was heartbreaking.

"And if we throw the disk away before we watch the motive? What then?" Not watching to sit through this sort of thing again, Kirishima wanted to know what would happen if they didn't follow the rules of having to watch the motive.

"Refusing to watch the motive will result in punishment, which will be chosen by me!" Seeing as though there wasn't much of an option: either watch the motive or be killed, there are still those who didn't want to go through the class trial again.

"So we die if we don't follow the rules? But just so long as we watch the motive, we can do be anything to them afterward?" Uraraka, who was hoping that destroying the DVDs would also help get rid of the reminder of their situation, it could help.

"Destroying property given by the headmaster also falls under property destruction. Doing that will result in punishment as well. Now then, go watch the motive videos, and feel free to spend the rest of the day sulking in sadness!"


	14. 2.4

☯

As all the students made their way to the A/V room, there was still the impending silence that could've made everyone stop in their tracks. "Who knows, guys? Maybe this won't be as bad as it was last time," ever the optimist, Denki was trying to lift spirits, even if it was failing desperately.

"I wouldn't have too much hope, Denki. We saw what happened last time. Let's just get this over with and hope that _this_ will be the last time." As much as Izuku wanted the game to be over, there was a feeling in his gut that told him this was just the beginning.

Finding everyone's DVD, the one thing that caught his attention was that Tsu now had a DVD, one that wasn't there at the beginning of the game. Not thinking about it, for now, everyone grabbed a pair of headphones and plugged them into the machine.

_**"Izuku Midoriya, the child of Inko Midoriya and the pupil of All Might,"** the beginning of the video didn't look too bad. Inko and Toshinori were sitting on the couch, innocent smiles on their face as if they were proud of him._

_"I'm so proud of you, Izuku! I knew you could get into UA," his mother, who was smiling almost ear to ear, looked innocent in this shot. This gave him enough assurance that everyone and everything he cared about was okay on the outside._

_"Young Midoriya, I knew you could get into UA! Now remember everything I taught you, everything you trained for, and that'll be your biggest key to success." His smile, it had hope that Midoriya would grow up to be in his image as the symbol of peace._

_However, this feeling of hope was short-lived, as the next shot showed the couch they were sitting in as it being a complete mess. The stuffing from the cushions were visible, there were large gash marks on the pillows and on the walls._

_The windows that once poured in sunshine from the outside were broken, and some of the shelves and off-screen objects were in the frame, either shattered or destroyed. The sudden scenery change was enough to bring Midoriya down to the feeling of fear, despair, worry._

**"Oh, but what's this? Whatever could've happened to Mama Midoriya and All Might for the scenery to change? How would you find out, Izuku Midoriya? I guess you'll need to find out after graduation."**

Moving away from the machine, it was clear there was a lot of visible confusion on everyone's faces. "Was it just me that got the same motive from last time?" Having a look of confusion on his face, Midoriya looked around to the different students, who just nodded in response.

"Nezu!" Calling out in hopes of getting a response, the creature wasn't there one second, but by the next, he was behind Midoriya.

"What is it?" Still having that annoyingly chipper personality, it was clear he knew what was going on, but it wasn't clear whether or not he'd share.

"How come we got the same motives as last time?" Thinking it was a slip-up from the headmaster, it was unclear whether or not this was something intentional or accidental.

"You didn't," letting out a sinister giggle after those words, there was a moment of silence before someone spoke up.

"Izuku, there's something glowing in the back of your neck," hearing as though it was Uraraka who said the sentence, he turned to face her and felt his neck in its entirety. "It's not on your neck, it's _in_ your neck."

"Wait, you've got one, too," seeing as though it was Jirou speaking that time, probably to Ochaco, there was a chance that this glowing neck thing happened to everyone. "So do you, Denki, and Iida," scanning everyone in the room, it seemed as though this happened to everyone.

"Nez-," turning to face the headmaster, he wasn't there anymore, leaving the seventeen students in the room by themselves. One moment, there were murmurs of everyone questioning the situation, but by the next, there was a familiar four-note tone that rang through the building.

**_"Now then, as I'm sure you're all aware of your 'glowing neck' problem, that is the new motive! Everyone here will have forty-eight (48) hours before time is up! Now, you may be wondering, "what happens when time runs out?" It's simple: everyone dies!"_ **

Seeing as though there were gasps that rang out from everyone, as well as the sudden urge to want to try to cut it out, Nezu wasn't done with his message. **_"The devices in your neck are bombs, only activated by my remote. If a student doesn't kill another by the time the forty-eight (48) hours are over, everyone in the school will die! That's all for now, buh-bye!"_**

Watching as the monitor cut off, there was an obvious stiffness in the room, causing all of the students to look at one another with suspicion. "Surely, he can't be serious, right? We would've felt it if he really but a bomb in our necks. They started glowing after we'd watched the motive video, but there's no way we could've _not_ felt it." 

"Wha- WHA?! You think I put those devices in your neck while you were watching the motive video?" Nezu, damnit, he wasn't the type to give a warning about any sort of sudden appearance, which made sense why everyone jumped.

"You had to have, didn't you? There's no other way to do it without being noticed by someone." Trying to think of a way for this to happen, there wasn't any other way for the headmaster to plant something in their necks. 

"While we were asleep, dumbass! During sleep is the only time someone could go through physical pain and not feel it." Hearing as though it was Bakugou speaking, everyone looked towards him with disbelief. "You planted these fuckin' things while we were asleep, didn't you?"

"Correct-amundo, Bakugou!" Hearing as though that was Nezu's response, it meant that he gave everyone a motive without warning.

"So does that mean the two-day countdown begins now or did it begin at nighttime?" Todoroki, though he wasn't a man of many words, it was a serious question to ask, especially because of being that dire. 

"It starts now! I didn't keep track of when I injected everyone, so it's better to start a counter collectively rather than sporadically. Now then, I'll leave you all be and decide who's gonna die!" Though no one had a chance to reject the sentence before the headmaster disappeared out of the room, everyone could help but look at one another with fear and suspicion, the same look as before.

"Okay, come on, even if this was true, shouldn't there be a way to disarm it so it _doesn't_ go off?" Not wanting to fully accept reality, Ojiro was the one to pitch the idea, and though it sounded like a great one, there was one thing wrong.

"Where in this school would we get something to disarm a bomb in our necks? There's not really a technology room or anything, and even then, I don't know if that would work." Not trying to sound like a Debbie Downer, there weren't many options when it came to things like this.

"But that doesn't mean we can't try, right? Nezu gave us two days to kill someone-," seeing as though this was Satou speaking, it sounded more like he was on the verge of breaking down. 

"Yes, _one of us!_ It's either someone in the class or it's all of us. Either way, we don't have a choice _but_ to kill a classmate before the headmaster kills us all! I know it doesn't sound like the best idea, but if we want to get out of this place..." though it was an unspeakable topic, having to kill someone so people could survive wasn't something they should've had to debate about.

"Tokoyami... where did this come from?" Since it was him who had the outburst, and Sero was the one asking the question, it seemed only fair that Hanta needed an answer to something like that. It wasn't something that anyone in the room wanted to discuss, but it needed to be said.

"You don't think any of us don't want to see our family? We don't have much of a choice here, Sero! It's either two people die or it's all of us, and though I don't want to be the one to admit it, there's not much of an option. You saw what happened to Hagakure when she tried to go against Nezu, we knew how that ended." Bringing up the sensitive topic about what happened a few days ago, meant there was a chance this wouldn't stop.

"Tokoyami, stop, okay? We'll find a way around this, as a team, as a class." Though Izuku was trying to calm him down, it started to become obvious that Fumikage was having a panic attack. "Come on, we need to get out of here, maybe take some time to ourselves."

"That sounds good, but we won't have as much time to find a way to get around this whole "neck-bomb" situation," watching as some of the students walked out of the room and probably to their dorms, Izuku stayed with him to make sure he'd get better.


	15. 2.5

☯

 _ **"Ahem, UA Academy has an announcement to make: rise and shine, students. It is now 8 AM, as such, nighttime is over."**_ Hearing the same morning announcement, the same tone, cadence, which got on everyone's nerves at this point. Getting out of bed, Izuku walked over to the bathroom and used the mirror to see the back of his neck.

To his demise, the bomb was still active. "Since nighttime's passed, we probably have anywhere from 36 to 30 hours left," muttering the words to himself, he turned on the water for the shower and undressed to get inside.

☯

Thirty minutes passed, and by now, Izuku left his room and walked to the dining room, expecting to see everyone there. Luckily, everyone was okay, considering he did a headcount of all the students in the room.

"Morning, Izuku, kero," Tsu, it looked like she was doing much better, which was great compared to the condition she was in when they first met. "I made breakfast."

"You're oddly cheerful, making breakfast when we've got a _bomb in the back of our necks."_ Sero was trying his best to keep calm, but it wasn't working, not all the time. 

"Sero," in a warning voice, Mina had to make sure he wasn't going to say something he'd regret. It was bad enough there was immense stress on everyone, but yelling wasn't going to solve anything. "That's enough."

"Question: what are we going to do? We've got a little more than a day before Nezu blows all of our heads off, and as mean as this could come out, I don't want to die with everyone." Todoroki sounded like the voice in everyone's head they didn't want to listen to. Everyone in the room were teenagers, it was upsetting to see they had to kill someone to let others live.

"We'll find a way around it, I promise," as much of a promise that Izuku was willing to make, it was an empty promise, one he couldn't uphold. 

"How? Nezu said it himself, "there's no way to extract the bomb without being punished. I'm sure all of us remember what happened with Hagakure when she tried to go against him." If there was a way out of this place, don't you think we would've found it by now?" Sero's true colors were starting to show, which expressed how much the killing game was getting to him.

"Sero, I-," as much as he wanted to interject, there was nothing Midoriya could've said that would've made any of them feel better. In a way, Hanta was right: no one found a way to get out of this place without it involving someone else's death.

"Midoriya, be honest with yourself! Can't you see the type of situation we're in?! We have to kill one another to get out of here. Each time someone dies, we're given a new motive to drive us to kill someone else! It's just going to be an endless loop until all of us are dead! We were dropped into this building with people we didn't know at the time and we're expected to kill them for our own freedom? Do you not realize how twisted that sounds?!"

"I wouldn't necessarily say that," muttering the sentence under his breath, Midoriya was heard by Jirou, who crossed her eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean, Izuku?" Seeing as though her question was heard by everyone, it caused them to look at the greenette in confusion. "You said, "I wouldn't necessarily say that," why?" 

Raising his head from purposefully looking at his food, his eyes darted to everyone in the room at an uneven pace. "A few days ago, it might've been yesterday, I went to the laundry room to wash my clothes. On the table, there was a photo of all of us, together, smiling as if we knew one another." 

"That doesn't sound believable, do you have proof?" Ojiro wanted to see if the photo was real or not and if it was, what it meant for everyone in the room. 

"No, because Nezu took the photo out of my hand before I had a chance to look over it fully. From what I saw, it was all of us, but there was someone else in the photo, someone not here." Remembering everyone's faces, the one face he didn't recognize was the person in bandages.

"There's no way that photo should exist," quickly shutting the idea down, Bakugou dropped his head, which caused Izuku to focus his glance onto the hot-headed boy.

"Why not?" Not wanting to shy away from the possibility, Kirishima had a solemn look in his eye, but it was also one looking for a reason behind Katsuki's eyes.

"Does anyone here remembering taking this photo? Let alone, does anyone remember meeting anyone before we were locked up in this school?" Expecting the answer the obvious answer, no one could speak against him.

"Do any of us know how much of a time jump it was since we first got inside the school? Does anyone even remember how we got here? If anyone kidnapped us and brought us here? For all we know, months could've passed, years, maybe." He was wanting to figure out what was going on, even if it kills him.

Pulling out his handbook, Midoriya went through all of the sections, though there was one he hadn't seen yet: the photos. Glancing through them, which there were only a few, there was one that caught his eye. "What are you looking for, Deku?" Bakugou was out of patience when it came to the greenette, though Izuku's face lit up when he noticed something.

"This," turning the tablet around for everyone to see, it was a photo of him and Katsuki from junior high. "That's me and Kacchan from Junior High. You really want to tell me there hasn't been much time passed from then to now?"

Watching as everyone's eyes glanced from the photo and towards Izuku again, there were certain features that stood out. "Back then, I never had these," pulling up his sleeves, he revealed some of his scars, specifically the ones on his hands and on the side of his arm.

"No no, he's got a point," though it wasn't immediately noticeable, Jirou looked between the photo and Deku, which her eyes noticed a number of things different. "So there's a chance we might've missed years, but how come we don't remember anything about it?"

"Then how about we backtrack? What's the last thing any of us remember?" Aoyama finally pitched in to help with the conversation. Now there was a major issue: none of them really remembered how any of them got into the school.

"I don't know, that's the thing. I never remembered stepping inside of the school, and if we did step inside, it didn't explain how and why all of the windows are barred closed." A lot of holes were in their memories, and everyone wanted to figure out what they meant and how come they were missing.

"I don't think we should be spending the entire day thinking about this sort of thing. I'm gonna go explore some more of the second level, so if you need anything, just let me know." Getting up from his seat, Izuku threw the wrappers from his food in the trash before going to walk through the door.

☯

Walking throughout the second floor, his attention first diverted to the swimming pool. Following the map, he followed the paths until he arrived. Pushing the door open, he walked through to see the pool, but there was a room in the back that caught his attention.

Opening the door with ease, Izuku noticed it looked like a sauna, causing him to tilt his head in confusion. "So there's a sauna with the pool, so there's got to be some other room, maybe equipment?" Talking out loud, as stupid as it made him look, was something that helped him focus his thoughts.

Glancing around the room in its entirety, he didn't see any other doors besides the one that led to the sauna. Leaving the room, he closed the door behind him and used the map to lead him to the library. Putting the tablet back into his pocket, he glanced around the room, specifically at the books.

Hearing a door open, his eyes shot to the source, which was the archives room. "Midoriya, there you are," it was Jirou, which gave him an odd sense of relief, but he still had to be on guard because of their active motive in the back of their necks.

"Jirou, did you find something in there?" He was about to go exploring in that room as well, but he wanted to know if there was anything he needed to be wary of beforehand. 

"Just the archives of this school, that and this," bringing a book from behind her back, Izuku's eyes glowed with both curiosity and confusion.

"What's in it?" Considering it looked like a normal black book, it was unclear whether this was something important or if it was there to fuck with all of the students. "And does it have something to do with any of us?"

"From what I saw: you were right." Not understanding what was being referred to, she opened the book and placed it on the desk. "You were right about there being some sort of time jump, and by the looks of it, it might've been three years." 

"Three years?!" Rushing over to her side to look inside the book, he glanced through the different photos. "I don't get it, it says we go to this school, or rather, we _used_ to go to this school. Class 3-A?"

"That's not all, look." Flipping a few pages, she showed him the group photo of all of them together. "Is this the photo you were talking about? The one with the man with the scarves?"

"It's not the exact same photo, but the guy definitely is. Is there anything there about him?" He wanted to get to the bottom of this, just to see how much of this was connected in the endgame.

"Just that he was our first-year teacher."


	16. 2.6

☯

The two left the library, and though they were about to go back to the first level, two Nezus walked up to the teenagers. "What do you want, Nezu?" Neither of them liked the fact they were stuck in the school, let alone being in captivity from a creature.

"I'm taking the bombs out of your neck, what else?" Holding up some sort of device, he crawled up their backs and rested at their necks. A slight stinging pain kicked in before he removed the bombs. Jumping down, both Nezus scurried along, leaving Jirou and Midoriya in the hall to themselves.

Realization finally dawned on him, causing Izuku to rush over to the stairs and get down to the first level. Glancing around, he saw Bakugou, Kirishima, and Todoroki standing together and rubbing their necks. "Woah man, what's wrong?" Since it was obvious the situation hadn't dawned on Kiri, Izuku felt short relief, but still felt fear.

"Who all have you seen?" It sounded stupid, but he needed to know the answer quickly.

"What?" Todoroki could tell something was wrong now, which caused his eyes to go wide.

"Who all have you seen recently? Specifically, _after_ Nezu took out the bombs in your necks," he knew someone died, that was the only way any of the bombs would be taken out. "Hurry!"

"I saw Iida, Mina, Tokoyami, and Uraraka," Kirishima could tell this was a dire situation now, meaning things were starting to click for him.

"I saw Tsu, Jirou, Sato, and Ojiro," seeing as it was Todoroki answering, it made him realize what was going on.

Everyone looked toward Bakugou, who just scoffed before forcing his hands in his pockets. "I saw Aoyama, Koda, Shoji, and Sero." Crossing off everyone's name in his mind, there was still one other person that wasn't verified.

"Noo one here saw Denki?" If his mind was true, it meant that he was the victim, meaning the killing game was still going. Seeing the three shake their head, his mind began racing a mile a minute.

"Does anyone remember where they saw him before the bombs were removed?" A sliver of hope would've been mercy from the headmaster, but that wasn't always the case. He wanted to see, to _hope_ that his gut was wrong.

"I think he was near the pool," Izuku took off running. To where? The location Todoroki mentioned. As much as he acted like he knew a lot of things, rather, he wanted to get to know more, it seemed as though he knew nothing about anyone or anything in the building.

Though he wasn't going to admit it to himself, part of him wanted everyone to be friends, to not have to deal with the mental weight of the killing game. Once more, hope wouldn't get you far in this situation. Rushing toward the swimming pool area, he passed by Kyoka, who had a look of confusion.

Glancing at her, even for a second, expressed enough of a message that she had to go with him. The both of them ran to the pool, technically Jirou following wherever Midoriya went. Bursting the doors open, he glanced around, hoping to find him. Hoping his mind didn't go to the worst possible outcome, he walked over to the edge of the pool.

His heart dropped out of his chest, the realization set in. "Jirou!" Calling out the name of his acquaintance, he couldn't use the word "friend" anymore, he'd waited a bit before seeing her shadow stand beside him.

"We need another person," she remembered the rules of the investigation, everything about it. At first, it slipped Midoriya's mind, but it came back to him then. "To trigger the investigation, do you remember what Nezu said?"

"If three people or more discover a body, an announcement will go off," he spoke the words dully, knowing he'd have to mentally prepare himself to go through the same thing he did with Mineta. "Damnit," muttering it under his own breath, he sighed and dropped his head.

Hearing Jirou's footsteps retreat, Izuku took a moment to himself, thinking of what he had to do. Taking out his e-Handbook, he set it down on the side of the pool before diving into the water. Grabbing the cinder brick with one hand, he grabbed Kaminari with the other and swam to the surface.

Hauling the block and the body overboard, he got out of the pool with water dripping down his body. Hauling himself over the edge, Izuku stood up as if it was nothing, and wrang his shirt out. The problem was that, with the body being in the water, it erased almost any form of DNA on the body.

Hearing the doors open, he glanced over to see who was in the room: Jirou and Mina. Seeing as though all of them were in the room, it caused the four-note tone to play throughout the intercom. Glancing over toward the screen, it cut on to show Nezu in the signature chair.

**_"A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin! This investigation is a special case, and as such, your Nezu file will have information from before the body was drowned."_ **

There was a sound that came from their handbooks, causing Jirou and Midoriya to pull theirs out immediately. Seeing the envelope, Izuku clicked on it, opening the newly imported file. He felt weak, there was a sudden pang in his body that caused him to collapse to his knees.

"Midoriya?" Glancing over to the teenager, Jirou had a feeling about what was going on, especially with his mental state. "I know you don't want to do it, Izuku," though she was more of an emotionally unavailable person, she knew how to read the room.

"It's not that I don't want to... It's just that I'm tired. We don't even know what's out there, let alone if all of this is worth it." Having self-doubting thoughts, caught Mina's attention, who was trying her best not to pay attention to the body in the room.

"What do you mean, Izu?" Putting his first name as an abbreviation, she walked over to where the greenette was. Mina could see how much of an issue death was to one's mental state, which was why she wanted to check in on him.

"I mean, do any of us know what's going on outside of these walls. Didn't Nezu say that we came here willingly?" He sounded like he was unsure of everything he was doing. It showed how much he was going through in silence.

"Izuku, snap out of it," Kyoka's cold words caught him off guard. Glancing up to the purple-haired teenager, there was a look in her eye that was stern, but that wasn't the only emotion in her eyes.

"What?" It was unexpected of her to say something out of the blue, which caused him to shift his glance from Mina to her.

"You can't give up, not like this. Listen, I know how hard it is, having to deal with death twice within a week," about to continue her words, she heard the door open, knowing other students were beginning to pile into the room. "And I know how much you want to give up, but you can't."

"I know everyone had the dream that one class trial would end the game, I did, too." Jirou was never the type to admit her feelings. It explained the reason why she wasn't good with emotions, both hers and anyone else's. "But you can't call it quits this soon, not while everyone's life, including your own, is on the line."

It was her weird way of telling him to step up onto the plate, knowing no one else had enough emotional confidence to do the investigation. Extending a hand for him to grab, she had a feeling that her little "speech" was hopefully enough to get him out of that mindset.

"Thanks, Jirou," his voice was soft, raw with emotion. He closed his eyes for a moment, finding it within himself to try and gather enough of himself to go through with the investigation. I guess the first thing we should do is get these things off, right?"

After he'd opened his eyes, he was talking about the chains wrapped around Kaminari's body, the same ones that kept him at the bottom of the pool. Handing Jirou his Handbook, which she held onto, he walked over to where the body was.

He didn't want to start examining, not with something major hindering the investigation. He grabbed two parts of the same chain line, putting enough distance between his hands to rip them apart. For some reason, he found it unbelievable that he was able to do that. This was another thing that proved there was some sort of time jump from junior high to now.

Once the chain was fully removed, he picked up the cinder block with ease. Placing it to the side, closer to the bleachers. "I guess we should get started."


	17. 2.6

☯

Taking a glance at his Handbook, he read the following. _"The victim is Denki Kaminari. The body was discovered at the bottom of the pool on the second floor. The estimated time of death is believed to be 12:30 PM. Not only is there a single laceration in his chest,_ _but_ _there are also signs of strangulation."_

That was all the file had, which Izuku closed and opened his notes. Closing his eyes for a moment, he thought about what he needed. "Jirou, do you have an extra set of gloves?" Though there was a chance she didn't have a pair, it'd be better to do his investigation with.

"Yeah, here," she pulled out a sealed pair of untouched gloves in a ziplock bag. Giving them to Midoriya, he accepted, opened them, and put them on. "Todoroki, do you think you can get everyone's alibi?"

"Sure," responding to the request, he pulled out his Handbook before leaving the pool area.

"Izuku, I'm going to go and see if there's any DNA around here," seeing as though she probably wasn't gonna talk to him for the rest of the investigation, he knelt.

The first thing noticeable was the pale blue around his lips, which threw off the case. Glancing toward the chest area, he saw the entry point of the blade. Leaning his body against his shoulder, he peered across the backside, unable to see an exit point.

Writing down the point in his notebook, Izuku placed it onto the floor beside him, He wanted to check something, which he moved Denki's hair from the back of his neck, which he saw the implant still glowing. "Jirou, you might wanna check this out."

Watching as she walked toward the body, his fingers ran over the neck implant, which was still glowing. "Huh, that's strange, Nezu!" Calling out to the robotic creature, it appeared behind them.

"What'ddya need?" Speaking nonchalantly, Nezu placed a paw on his chin, showing he was pondering what they needed. "And make it quick, I like watching y'all try to investigate cases," weird as that came out, it made sense to them.

"How come Denki's neck implant is still active?" Flipping him onto his side, Jirou showed Nezu while asking the question. It was a common thought that everyone would get their implants removed.

"It's not. I only put it to glow so it would act as a reminder. The implant is tied to your spinal cord and brainwaves, when those stop, it deactivates." Having a bit of clarity on what was going on, made him wonder about anything else he might've secretly added into the game.

"Great, thanks. Go away," sounding annoyed with his presence, Jirou made sure he went away before going back to investigate. Once he was gone, they both focused on investigation again. Going back to investigate the body, he glossed over the Nezu File again.

 _"There are also signs of strangulation,"_ stood out to him the most. Lifting his chin, Izuku lightly traced his finger across the markings around his neck. Gently lifting his torso, he glanced around the neck area.

He found something strange. "Jirou, can you come over here?" There was a chance that his repeated interruptions to her investigation would piss her off, but this was important. Seeing as though she came over, she had her Handbook in her hand.

"Yes, Midoriya?" From the direction she came, she was done going over the room, and he'd hoped she found something useful.

"When you look at the strangulation, does it look like one complete circle to you? Or does it look like-," he wasn't able to continue the question, considering she brushed her gloved finger over the nape lacerations.

"It was overlapped... Can I use you for a second?" Assuming it was something to do with the case, he nodded, put the body down, and stood up.

"Of course, what do you need?" He hoped it was something that could help with the case. Seeing as though she pulled out some sort of shoestring, his eyes darted between Jirou and the item in hand. "What did I sign up to?"

"Just need to test something. Can you flip Kaminari onto his stomach?" He couldn't read the room well, so he just did as told. Jirou walked behind him and wrapped the shoestring around his neck.

"Jirou?" He didn't know if this was some sort of attempt on his life, but soon enough, the shoestring dropped.

"Did you notice the pattern of strangulation toward the back of his neck?" Seeing as though she kept glancing between the string and the markings, Izuku looked to see what was going on.

"I hadn't noticed that before, hold on," moving away from being in front of Jirou, he looked at the back of Kaminari's neck. "You think it's someone right-handed?"

"And someone with big palms, take a look at the rope." Taking a heavy look, he noticed slight blood on the rope.

"Whoever it was must've gripped it too tight." Starting to piece everything together, Jirou and Izuku shared a look.

"All we have to do is look for the one who has nail engravings in their hands. Check this floor, I'll go to the first floor." Seeing as though Jirou rushed away, Izuku ran out of the pool area, down the stairs, and went to the rest of the floor. 

When he got out of the pool area, he first rushed toward the library, hoping to see someone. Instead, he found Iida, which caused him to let out a relieved sigh. "Oh, Iida, it's you. Can I ask a favor of you?" 

"Of course, Midoriya. What is it?" Iida was always the type to help anyone, depending on what the request was. 

"This might be a weird thing to ask, but can I see your hands?" Watching as he nodded, Izuku was first shown the back of his hands. "Now, can I see your palms?" There was obvious hesitance, but Tenya did as requested and showed the palm of his hands.

At first glance, he saw the nail engravings, which made the greenette sigh before writing something down in his handbook. "Thanks, so I'm gonna go see if there's anyone else on this floor." Walking away, it was clear something troubled him.

"What did you need to see my hands for, Midoriya?" Usually, Iida had a strict tone of voice, but something about his voice this time made him sound dangerous. It almost sent a chill up his spine.

"Just to clear out who all could and couldn't be the killer. Another thing, are you left-handed or right-handed?"

"I'm right-handed," it was noticeable that his voice was still dangerous, so he had to tread lightly. Forcing innocence onto his face, he proceeded to walk out of the library. Closing the door behind him, he went to the different rooms next, but he didn't see anyone.

Retreating back to the pool area, he went to the bleachers before going back to Kaminari's body. Climbing onto the first stair, he checked on, underneath, and between each seat, making sure he left nothing behind. The one thing that caught his attention was a pair of leather gloves, which he made note of.

Getting onto the second level, he didn't see anything, neither on the third. On the fourth, however, he found some wire, bloody wire at that. Grabbing it by the handle, he held it up to get a better view. Making notes in his Handbook, he made sure to remember where it was so he could come back to it.

Going onto the fifth level, he didn't find anything, which made him grab the wire and go down the stairs again. Walking over to Kami's body, he glanced between the wire and his neck, seeing some sort of correlation. The thing that stood out was that it was some sort of professional wire, considering the handles looked military-grade.

About to get up from kneeling over the body, Izuku saw something glimmer from the light and the pool's reflection. Getting up, he walked over to where the source was, only to find a knife stained with blood. Picking it up, he walked back to the corpse.

Looking at the cut in Denki's shirt, he wanted to test something, just to see if this was the murder weapon. Carefully inserting the item into the wound, the hilt met the skin, meaning this was the blade that was once used. At first glance, it looked like the weapon was discarded, thrown away in hopes of it not being found.

Getting up from kneeling, he rushed out of the room and went to the storage on the first floor. What he was looking for? Any sort of powder, something that could help him figure out what the pattern with the fingerprints was. 

Setting the knife down, he wedged the knife into a wooden slab, placing some baby powder on the handle. Shaking off any excess powder, there was something off about the fingerprints: they were on the hilt of the weapon, two sets were.

Making a note of how things were splayed, Izuku didn't have as much time before Nezu's voice came overhead. _"Please make your way to the double red doors near the gym, don't be late!"_ Once again, another class trial, one where they'd have to solve the murder of their friend, as well as who murdered him.


End file.
